Ladd credits his high-school soccer coach (and, in spirit, Scott Bellware) with the adage 'practice doesn't make perfect — practice makes permanent'. Only perfect practice could make you perfect, and perfect practice is a Platonic ideal. The operational lesson: everything you do, you are getting better at — including getting better at less than your best if you don't choose your best. The biggest opportunity for improvement is practicing at a higher level, slowing down, and treating every line of code as an opportunity for improvement.