Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Programming: Doing it more vs. doing it better

kevinmartinjose.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 223 posts

Re: Programming: Doing it more vs. doing it better

#11

Post by segmondy »

kragen wrote: post #8

Someone who's been programming for three years is still a beginner, even though based on what he wrote here, Kevin is almost certainly a lot better than I was when I'd been programming for only three years. I do find that a lot of programming stuff that used to be hard is easier for me now that I've been progrmaming for 38 years. But that doesn't mean I spend all my time doing things I can do without thinking, and it…

Someone programming for 3 yrs is not a beginner, There are people programming at 3 yrs that are experts and will run circles around you and your 38 years. Some people really have the talent and put in the work to get good. In 2019, the mentorship is available via means of books, blogs, MOOC, youtube videos, conferences. What some folks can achieve in 3 yrs these days is really unbelievable. P/S, I have been hacking around the computer for 25yrs and think I'm a pretty good programmer too. But I have been impressed by some 2 yrs old & 3 yrs old experiences.

Re: Programming: Doing it more vs. doing it better

#13

Post by hhs »

segmondy wrote: post #11
kragen wrote: post #8

Someone who's been programming for three years is still a beginner, even though based on what he wrote here, Kevin is almost certainly a lot better than I was when I'd been programming for only three years. I do find that a lot of programming stuff that used to be hard is easier for me now that I've been progrmaming for 38 years. But that doesn't mean I spend all my time doing things I can do without thinking, and it…

Someone programming for 3 yrs is not a beginner, There are people programming at 3 yrs that are experts and will run circles around you and your 38 years. Some people really have the talent and put in the work to get good. In 2019, the mentorship is available via means of books, blogs, MOOC, youtube videos, conferences. What some folks can achieve in 3 yrs these days is really unbelievable. P/S, I have been hacking a…

Interesting view. I'm learning, with about 8 months worth of knowledge and experience, and this is useful.

Did you notice any skills/traits in those people who were "unbelievable" in those 3 years? For instance, did they do "test driven development"? Also, did they keep good log habits?

Re: Programming: Doing it more vs. doing it better

#14

Post by LarryMade2 »

I think when you are starting some new concept, that you are learning as you go you need to just try to do your best of throwing stuff on the wall to get it to work, refactor a lot and keep grinding away. During this time you are building the "Big picture" of what it is.

Once you get a good enough big picture then you probably will start to realize where how to optimize the data and create better methods, but even there it still never stops, you now know the system, and can figure out what you need from the technology to construct a better platform.

The databases I've worked with for over 20 years have evolved as I have added more functionality, I have been able to identify where the priorities were as well as how to make it function more dynamically. I didn't really get the big picture for a decade as they were sill doing part of it analog and only requested (revealed to me) more functionality as the system grew more capable.

You may think you know it all now, but I would think there's still a lot more road to be covered after only three years.

Re: Programming: Doing it more vs. doing it better

#15

Post by [deleted] »

segmondy wrote: post #11
kragen wrote: post #8

Someone who's been programming for three years is still a beginner, even though based on what he wrote here, Kevin is almost certainly a lot better than I was when I'd been programming for only three years. I do find that a lot of programming stuff that used to be hard is easier for me now that I've been progrmaming for 38 years. But that doesn't mean I spend all my time doing things I can do without thinking, and it…

Someone programming for 3 yrs is not a beginner, There are people programming at 3 yrs that are experts and will run circles around you and your 38 years. Some people really have the talent and put in the work to get good. In 2019, the mentorship is available via means of books, blogs, MOOC, youtube videos, conferences. What some folks can achieve in 3 yrs these days is really unbelievable. P/S, I have been hacking a…

[deleted]

Re: Programming: Doing it more vs. doing it better

#16

Post by mamon »

felipemnoa wrote: post #9
mamon wrote: post #5

>> The best writers write much more slowly than everyone else, and the better they are, the slower they write. By that metric George R.R. Martin is on track to be the greatest writer of all the time :)

Nah. He just got distracted by the trappings of being famous.

No, he had written himself into a corner at the end of the "Dance of Dragons", and then waited for the tv show screenwriters to help him figure out how to proceed from there - that's the most probable explanation I can come up with (hinted by some statements from his interviews).

Re: Programming: Doing it more vs. doing it better

#17

Post by leggomylibro »

seba_dos1 wrote: post #2

> Three years later, I am still very much the apprentice. Well, three years is really not a lot when it comes to developing an intuition. Just enough to grasp some basics. > a writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people Yeah, I seem to recall Douglas Adams saying that the easier it is to read a text, the harder it was to write it. At the beginning of my career I was constantly bei…

It might just be one of those universal truths: you need to understand something very well to explain how it works in simple terms.

Or as some smart person once said, "brevity is the soul of wit."

Re: Programming: Doing it more vs. doing it better

#18

Post by toomuchequate »

temdbej wrote: post #6

Part of me feels like bootcamps are effective for some because you will inevitably start getting it when you do it for 15+ hours a day every day for an extended period of time (which is more than you’d likely do on the job or in a more theoretical CS degree)

>when you do it for 15+ hours a day every day for an extended period of time

Does this happen? I've programmed daily for ~11 hours/day between 2 companies, but at 15hrs/day I feel like there is diminishing returns.

Re: Programming: Doing it more vs. doing it better

#19

Post by qlk1123 »

revskill wrote: post #7

I use one rule: If it's easy to remove, then it's fine. Because only then, i don't fear refactoring later. So i'll get my goal: Easy refactoring for fun and profit. Refactoring is often underrated. Actually i learnt more from refactoring rather than "just make it work perfectly since day 1.

This reminds me the talk:

https://maximilianhoffmann.com/talks/programming/the-art-of-...

Re: Programming: Doing it more vs. doing it better

#20

Post by opportune »

toomuchequate wrote: post #18
temdbej wrote: post #6

Part of me feels like bootcamps are effective for some because you will inevitably start getting it when you do it for 15+ hours a day every day for an extended period of time (which is more than you’d likely do on the job or in a more theoretical CS degree)

>when you do it for 15+ hours a day every day for an extended period of time Does this happen? I've programmed daily for ~11 hours/day between 2 companies, but at 15hrs/day I feel like there is diminishing returns.

Why 11hr/day?
Post reply on HN