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Speed matters: Why working quickly is more important than it seems

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Re: Speed matters: Why working quickly is more important than it seems

#51

Post by graycoder »

bonesinger wrote: post #24
sheepmullet wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In general I disagree. I learned far more in 6 months at a "high quality" shop working excruciatingly slow than I did in the 5 years at the previous job where I banged out code as fast as possible. I feel like when you focus on speed you very quickly learn just enough to get the task done quickly. And then your progress stalls.

In that boat right now, but instead of 5 years in, 1.5 years in. I've been reading books on design patterns (we barely use them, you should get an idea of how bad it is here) and just in general trying to be better.

Good on you. I left a place a little while back that taught me all the things I now know to look out for when I eventually start my own business or interview at new places.

Re: Speed matters: Why working quickly is more important than it seems

#52

Post by odonnellryan »

doki_pen wrote: post #48

How do mere mortals become wizards to their peers? They take the time to read documentation and code and really understand the tools that they are working on. What software projects have stood the test of time? The ones that were painstakingly thought out and progressed slowly. Of course there's a balance, and our current system of financing software projects rewards fast and loose, and there will always be a place f…

Go slow so you can be fast :)

Re: Speed matters: Why working quickly is more important than it seems

#53

Post by brlewis »

marcosdumay wrote: post #47
brlewis wrote: post #40

From the comments, I think readers are generally failing to take an opportunistic attitude toward this article. Dig out useful ideas and ignore what doesn't help. Yes, there are situations where working too quickly will bite you, so you can't always do it. But the key idea here is that by working quickly you reduce your expectations of how costly a new effort is. Then you'll actually start it. Inertia is a powerful a…

"Opportunistic attitude" looks too much like "confirmation bias" to me to be comfortable with it.

If it's an idea you're already using, then it isn't an opportunity.

Re: Speed matters: Why working quickly is more important than it seems

#54

Post by PhilipDaineko »

doki_pen wrote: post #48

How do mere mortals become wizards to their peers? They take the time to read documentation and code and really understand the tools that they are working on. What software projects have stood the test of time? The ones that were painstakingly thought out and progressed slowly. Of course there's a balance, and our current system of financing software projects rewards fast and loose, and there will always be a place f…

"create something truly amazing takes a lot of time" Reminds of a front t-short slogan from Games People Play by Eric Berne.

Re: Speed matters: Why working quickly is more important than it seems

#55

Post by travjones »

The author rests his entire argument on illusions to "the mind" that are untested and impossible to test. For example, "If you work quickly, the cost of doing something new will seem lower in your mind." Not sure how we get into someone's mind to measure the "cost of doing something."

We could not confirm or disconfirm this as truth, say in the context of an experiment. This phenomenon is better described by the concept of immediacy of reinforcement. As one decreases the delay to reinforcement, the strength of behavior maintained by that reinforcer increases [0].

0: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1332712/

Re: Speed matters: Why working quickly is more important than it seems

#56

Post by gress »

travjones wrote: post #55

The author rests his entire argument on illusions to "the mind" that are untested and impossible to test. For example, "If you work quickly, the cost of doing something new will seem lower in your mind." Not sure how we get into someone's mind to measure the "cost of doing something." We could not confirm or disconfirm this as truth, say in the context of an experiment. This phenomenon is better described by the conc…

Sounds like you're advocating a return to strict behaviorism.

Re: Speed matters: Why working quickly is more important than it seems

#57

Post by travjones »

gress wrote: post #56
travjones wrote: post #55

The author rests his entire argument on illusions to "the mind" that are untested and impossible to test. For example, "If you work quickly, the cost of doing something new will seem lower in your mind." Not sure how we get into someone's mind to measure the "cost of doing something." We could not confirm or disconfirm this as truth, say in the context of an experiment. This phenomenon is better described by the conc…

Sounds like you're advocating a return to strict behaviorism.

Strict behaviorism? I'm advocating for the experimental analysis of behavior (sometimes referred to as radical behaviorism). When applied to practical human problems, it is referred to as applied behavior analysis.

The study I cited provides support for the authors conclusion. However, his description is flawed because it doesn't provide means for prediction and control of behavior.

Re: Speed matters: Why working quickly is more important than it seems

#58

Post by mkesper »

erikb wrote: post #14

It's funny that they include google as a fast example. On my Nexus4 and Nexus7 Google search is the slowest thing you can do on the internet. Youtube HD videos are way faster than a google search and fail less often when on the train/bus. I always wonder how sending a String and getting back a list of Strings can be so much more expensive than a HD video but who am I to judge, right?

I think he's having in mind the time when you had to enter altavista-digital.com to enter a search site. There were worlds between that and google.com (both entering the URL and getting the results).

Re: Speed matters: Why working quickly is more important than it seems

#59

Post by _yosefk »

doki_pen wrote: post #48

How do mere mortals become wizards to their peers? They take the time to read documentation and code and really understand the tools that they are working on. What software projects have stood the test of time? The ones that were painstakingly thought out and progressed slowly. Of course there's a balance, and our current system of financing software projects rewards fast and loose, and there will always be a place f…

"What software projects have stood the test of time? The ones that were painstakingly thought out and progressed slowly."

I kinda think that the opposite is true, or at least as true as your statement (meaning that at least as much half-baked stuff rushed out the door 'stood the test of time' as did stuff that took a lot of time to ship.) Unix, C, Windows, PHP, JavaScript...

Re: Speed matters: Why working quickly is more important than it seems

#60

Post by ar_turnbull »

thomasahle wrote: post #13
shardinator wrote: post #2

I have to agree. My personal experience suggests if you want to get good at something, keep doing lots of it and aim for speed rather than perfection. You'll end up being speedy and get closer to perfection, than if you just try for perfection. But one good counter example does come to mind - designing a database schema. I'm trying to wrestle with what the difference might be. I think Markov processes, e.g. processes…

I can think of lots of more things, where doing them fast initially makes sure you'll never learn them: * Typing on a keyboard * Sharpening a knife * Driving a car. It seems more like a question of doing things a lot and very focused, than focusing on speed initially.

I used to teach guitar and always had to tell students to practice it slowly, but perfectly first, and only try to speed things up once they had the basics mastered.

Speed is impressive, but you literally have to learn to walk before you can run!

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