I wonder if there's some way to apply this to coding. Besides annoying my co-workers, would verbally talking about what I'm coding improve the quality of my code, or productivity? What about physical gestures?
Why Japan’s Rail Workers Point at Things
271–280 of 334 posts
Re: Why Japan’s Rail Workers Point at Things
#272I wonder if there's some way to apply this to coding. Besides annoying my co-workers, would verbally talking about what I'm coding improve the quality of my code, or productivity? What about physical gestures?
It feels like our equivalent would be Rubber Duck Debugging.
Re: Why Japan’s Rail Workers Point at Things
#273[deleted]
Re: Why Japan’s Rail Workers Point at Things
#274Slightly off topic but this practice of talking-out-loud to get yourself doing stuff is also beneficial to people with executive dysfunction. If your executive function is impaired you generally don't have the "internal monologue" or the voice in your head. This makes seemingly simpler things like taking a shower, driving, or eating, very difficult! I'd often "forget" to eat, simply because I could not get myself to…
I "we" too, the cause of this is imo because it's your brain's desire/automatic function and your brain's thinking part that are not entirely connected. Yet they are both an I, and 2 I's make a we.
Alternatives to we that also would work imo: Me and you( you being directed at one-self), Me and me, Me's (as in plural), I's (as in plural).
Re: Why Japan’s Rail Workers Point at Things
#275If you don’t point to the knot on your harness when calling out that you are tied in, and we don’t audibly call out “On belay... belay on” to each other, we aren’t climbing together. These exact same rituals have been developed for climbing because everyone, experienced, and inexperienced, can make mistakes. The greatest climber of her generation (of any gender!), Lynn Hill, opens her autobiography with the story of…
I knew a climber who quit cold turkey after 10 years climbing due to a similar situation happening to one of her buddies that she considered to be an expert. She suddenly realized she was playing a game of 'when' not 'if'.
Re: Why Japan’s Rail Workers Point at Things
#276I have a strict rule that I must touch my keys before closing the front door, because I discovered the keys in my memory don't open the door as well as the keys in my pocket.
I do the same. Every time I leave the house, before I close the door, I make sure to tap my phone, wallet and keys. Same when exiting my car, I make sure I have my keys in my hand when I close the door (I don't have remote locking).
I just bought a new car with a RFID key. The key never leaves my pocket. As I put my hand around the door handle, it unlocks. Once I'm in the car I press a Start button and it's ready to run. When leaving the car I press a special spot on the handle and it locks all the doors. If I were to leave the key in the car and lock it from the outside, it wouldn't matter because I (or anyone else) could unlock it simply by grabbing the handle again.
Re: Why Japan’s Rail Workers Point at Things
#277This also applies to aviation. While pilots execute the same checklist several times each day, year after year, it is still required to verbally call the items on the list. It feels a bit strange doing it when you're sitting in a cockpit alone, but it does really improve accuracy and ensures you're following the same procedure every time whether there is a co-pilot, instructor or nobody sitting in the other seat. I'v…
My wife got yelled at by an instructor today for verbalizing "airspeed alive". Something she does as she rotates to determine if she wants to abort before she's committed.
After she relayed the story I mentioned this thread and we both decided the guy was nuts.
Re: Why Japan’s Rail Workers Point at Things
#278When debugging in production environments (which is always a bad idea) I use a technique where I always work together with a coworker and before I'm about to do something destructive I say out loud what I'm going to do and ask for agreement that I should continue. I started this after reading what happened at Gitlab a month ago.
I do that on Slack—sometimes with a coworker keenly following along, and sometimes when I'm the only one awake.
Re: Why Japan’s Rail Workers Point at Things
#279I wonder if there's some way to apply this to coding. Besides annoying my co-workers, would verbally talking about what I'm coding improve the quality of my code, or productivity? What about physical gestures?
Not verbal, but I think of strict adherence to coding and commenting standards in this spirit. A single character out of place can distract the reader from a fatal bug. Also, acknowledging one's fallibility and handling cases that should never happen:
else throw("BUG: ...")Re: Why Japan’s Rail Workers Point at Things
#280Earlier quoted context omitted.
Honestly, one thing I like about HN is that these sorts of corrections are made, and made respectfully. Their post was interesting because they're right: I'm a native English speaker and I paused on "medicament".
And yet it's a real word, just an uncommon one, so it's not really a correction, but a recommendation to speak differently presented as a correction. That can be fairly easy to take negatively. Personally, if I felt compelled to point out that it was uncommon, I would have said "At first I though medicament was a misspelling or autocorrect mistake, but when I looked it up, I found out it's a real word in English, if…
Yikes, this is the kind of "feedback" that ends in divorce. I would never understand your version was intended as a correction. To me, this comes across as "thanks for teaching me a new word", and I would think "you're welcome".