251–260 of 424 posts
Knowing how to use Google (or another search engine) is probably the biggest multiplier of all. Odds are someone has done something on the sort of problem you are trying to solve.
A widespread example of this is linear regression analysis. Mathematically, it only works because we make assumptions about the data (and even these can be relaxed) & limiting the scope of the problems it can solve.
This also applies to delivering projects. A fully engineered & robust project could possibly require a great deal of human, physical resources and time. But if we start iterating over a list of problems your system solves (sorted by decreasing value), the project suddenly costs only a fraction of what it would otherwise.
This doesn't come for free though: your MUST understand the limitations & assumptions of your systems, otherwise you or someone will pay dearly. Look at Zillow & failure to understand its forecasting system. Look at so many other startups applying ML where it has no place.
Zillow's failure is the best case (though catastrophic): the principal paid the cost. But take something like Google, applying a fully automated system to make decisions about banning accounts. These are real world decisions that have a huge effect on people & businesses. In this case, Google saves money on providing human support & offsets the costs to third parties who often can't afford it.
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Back in the day, I saw someone ripping a CD to MP3s. He lazily named the first one 1.mp3, the seconde one 2.mp3 etc. After 9, he found he ran out of numbers. So the next one became ... A1.mp3 ! I always wondered, if he thought this trough a little bit further, he'd independently reinvent the arabic number systems.
Some interfaces will sort 10.mp3 so it's directly under 1.mp3, instead of under 9.mp3. This could be a totally sensible hack to evade that problem.
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I love this idea. You don’t need to be at the top 1% of a field to do cool innovate stuff, just be good at two or three different fields and see what happens when you combine them. Currently going down this rabbit hole with computational archaeology and having a whale of a time :)
This is complete bs, real innovation happens exclusively in the top 1 percent of the field. This is just coolaid that some people like to drink to de emphasize the value of real skill and inflate their own egos.
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I love this idea. You don’t need to be at the top 1% of a field to do cool innovate stuff, just be good at two or three different fields and see what happens when you combine them. Currently going down this rabbit hole with computational archaeology and having a whale of a time :)
This is complete bs, real innovation happens exclusively in the top 1 percent of the field. This is just coolaid that some people like to drink to de emphasize the value of real skill and inflate their own egos.
- Writing as form of (or tool for) thinking; Leslie Lamport said (maybe quoting someone) that if you're thinking, but not writing, you only think that you're thinking; - High tolerance for feeling ignorant, confused, silly, inadequate, a novice: none of these states should phase you: you should not have a comfort zone: let your mind feel at ease in not understanding something: go to the eye of the storm and weather i…
> High tolerance for feeling ignorant, confused, silly, inadequate, a novice: none of these states should phase you: you should not have a comfort zone: let your mind feel at ease in not understanding something: go to the eye of the storm and weather it: you'll come out being more capable; I’d love to be more at ease on uncomfortable situations. Any tips?
Whenever I find myself in an anxious or uncomfortable situation, the thing that I need to remind myself is that things are going to turn out okay for me, whatever happens. I do this by working my way up a version of Mazlowe's hierarchy:
1. Am I physically safe? Can I breathe? Can I move my body?
2. Do I have access to shelter? Do I know where my next meal will come from?
3. Are my loved ones safe? Do I have friends and people who care about me?
4. Do I have skills that I care about? Can I do work that I'm proud of?
5. Do I have a job that gives me money? That I like to do?
In pretty much any uncomfortable situation you're in (at least in the context of career improvement), almost all of these things are totally unaffected. The sun will rise tomorrow, even if I bomb this programming interview. My friends will still be my friends, even if I do a bad job networking at this event.
And the fact that so many of the good things in my life will still be good, even if an uncomfortable situation goes as badly as it can, gives me a lot more confidence.
And then, like anything else in the world: practice, practice, practice. The more uncomfortable situations you put yourself in, the more you practice reminding your brain that "everything is okay, actually," the less uncomfortable you'll feel in any given situation.
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I love this idea. You don’t need to be at the top 1% of a field to do cool innovate stuff, just be good at two or three different fields and see what happens when you combine them. Currently going down this rabbit hole with computational archaeology and having a whale of a time :)
Computational archeology sounds great, what do you do? Is there more demand?
The best bit is some of the groups use languages like Haskell so the work itself, from a purely programming perspective, is interesting too!
Can someone elaborate on how they use reg ex as a productivity boost? Do you use it for text transformation? How do you use it exactly? Do you use it as code itself or as a tool to help you explore/write code? I am a huge fan of Macros, I 100% understand their role in text transformation, but what problem does regex solve? I spend so much time trying to remember the correct syntax, it only ever works for me when solv…
Editing large amounts of data. Notepad++ supports (some) regex find and replace, and I use it often to clean large lists or reformat data.
Wow! Thank you.
* Micro-optimizations: e.g. a shortcut that saves you a few seconds several times a day.
* 'Mid'-optimizations: e.g. writing an script that saves you an hour once a week.
* Macro-optimizations: e.g. pushing back against building a useless feature that saves you several months in a year.
Most developers focus in the micro level, but I believe 10x productivity lives in the macro level. Also the macro level doesn't need as much tech skills as it does soft skills and domain knowledge.
As an exhibit, in my career I've seen two projects that
a) never launched
b) took several people several months to build
c) would have never been built had someone pushed back and asked the right questions at the start.