41–50 of 50 posts
Semi-related question: can anyone suggest a lightweight, easy-to-manage ticketing system that doesn't inspire hate? I've been seriously considering setting something like this up on my own server as a personal TODO tracker, but I don't know the space well.
Semi-related question: can anyone suggest a lightweight, easy-to-manage ticketing system that doesn't inspire hate? I've been seriously considering setting something like this up on my own server as a personal TODO tracker, but I don't know the space well.
You have to figure in some time each day away from the screen but still thinking about work in a kind-of background task. And carry a notepad or make voice memos when the light bulb moment strikes.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"It is not possible to not end up in super brain mode with some of the problems I deal with." I'll argue that it is possible, just not necessarily preferable. You could rewrite the whole thing. You could also focus on building a number of small functions which brings the whole interface up to a human-digestible level. The reality of the matter is not the realm of possibility, but instead that you often just want to g…
I'm amused that you think it is possible to rewrite the whole thing without entering super brain mode. In my experience, generally the only way to reproduce such legacy reports is by reverse engineering how they currently work. (which will require super brain mode based on the above described current complexity) One would think someone in the business would know what the report is supposed to do, but I frequently enc…
Semi-related question: can anyone suggest a lightweight, easy-to-manage ticketing system that doesn't inspire hate? I've been seriously considering setting something like this up on my own server as a personal TODO tracker, but I don't know the space well.
Ingenuity and Ticket Systems don't combine very well.
There's no list of action items for Truly Cool Stuff. You just dive in and start messing around. You can probably externalize some context as you cross off ideas and concepts that won't work. But there's no game plan, thus no concept of a "Next Action". You're on a blank sheet of paper with a head full of context, and any distraction will kill that.
So yeah, there are circumstances where you can survive interruptions. But there are also circumstances where they'll kill you.
I've always been an 'interruptible programmer'. While my bosses have really loved it, they pay for it by my being less productive. You see, the human mind can only hold so many concepts in active thought at the same time. It's somewhere around 7. If paying attention to your surroundings is 1, there's only 6 left. If someone -happens- in the surroundings, there's at least 1 more gone. If something -interesting- happen…
Semi-related question: can anyone suggest a lightweight, easy-to-manage ticketing system that doesn't inspire hate? I've been seriously considering setting something like this up on my own server as a personal TODO tracker, but I don't know the space well.
Org-Mode is for keeping notes, maintaining ToDo lists, doing project planning, and authoring with a fast and effective plain-text system. http://orgmode.org/
Note: Unfortunately, the Dropbox integration is currently kinda borked, sometimes displaying the password in the clear, or with connection failures.
The problem arises when you are focused on something very specific, for example designing a particularly complicated series of function calls, you effectively have to keep a stack in your mind, think about locals, instance variables, whatever, abstract stuff that the brain isn't so well designed at retaining, which becomes very vulnerable to disruption. If you are unlucky enough to be interrupted while in that kind o…
Maybe your code is too complicated? I suppose the ultimate goal is too keep one's code clean and simple enough that one does have to go into super brain mode in order to solve a problem. Sadly we don't live in an ideal world.
Teamwork is a competitive advantage because a good team can develop more complex systems than a single programmer.
Clean and simple code with good architecture is a competitive advantage, because using simpler more appropriate constructs, we can develop more complex systems (or our systems run faster, or take less resources)
If we are able to go into super brain mode we are able to deal with and build more complex systems.
I like clean code as a competitive advantage, or force multiplier, but I also like the ability to use super brain mode to be able to handle more complex systems.
The double edged sword is that you've made a more complex system requiring the focus of super brain mode to work with, but if you use it carefully, sparingly, and wisely, perhaps your system can do things that a constant interruption brain mode system just can't do. It's a dangerous but powerful tool in my opinion.
Perhaps working in that space is what separates the good or amazing developers from the code monkeys? Or is it always too much of a liability to have such a system?