Resolutions for programmers • Hacker News Board

Re: Resolutions for programmers

#31

Post by freehunter » Tue, Jan 03, 2012, 5:39 PM UTC

ArbitraryLimits wrote: post #16

mattmight wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I learned Dvorak to help with RSI. It worked. I'm fast at Dvorak after 4 years (90 wpm), but not as fast as I was with Qwerty (120 wpm). Dvorak has a pleasant "rolling" finger feel and my wrists never ache, so I've kept it. What fascinated me about learning Dvorak was that I felt like a stroke patient. Suddenly, I could not do something I had been able to do for years. It made me consider the cost of a keystroke. Gre…

I know what you mean about the stroke patient thing. I had (still have, actually) RSI-ish problems in my right wrist but not my left, so I started mousing with my left hand and it felt exactly the same. Years later, my day-to-day productivity has fully recovered, but I still can't play mouse-intensive games like Minesweeper without getting confused and clicking the air with my right hand when I meant to use my left.

To help with RSI from the mouse, I got a trackball. It lets me keep my hand at a comfortable position and just roll my thumb ever so slightly to move around. My wrist never needs to touch the desk, so carpal tunnel is mitigated.

Re: Resolutions for programmers

#32

Post by dennisgorelik » Tue, Jan 03, 2012, 5:39 PM UTC

rmc wrote: post #28

dennisgorelik wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried using ergonomic keyboard to help with RSI?

I got a bount of RSI, and switched to a egonomic keyboard (Microsoft Natural 4000), and it helped immensly.

I use Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 for years and do not suffer from RSI.

Another thing that probably helps is that I use table with enough depth, so between my monitors and edge of my table there is enough depth to not only fit my keyboard, but also extra ~15 centimeters space for my arms.

Re: Resolutions for programmers

#33

Post by vq » Tue, Jan 03, 2012, 5:40 PM UTC

samskiter wrote: post #8

I really like the suggestions. So, January is analog. Time to buy myself an XBox Kinect and try and high score Virtual Dance Off High School 8. 3. Embrace the uncomfortable. How about quit Facebook...

Could be worse, for me it would be to join Facebook. :/

Re: Resolutions for programmers

#34

Post by mark_l_watson » Tue, Jan 03, 2012, 5:43 PM UTC

candre717 wrote: post #15

Tips for completing resolutions, such as these 12: a. Have a plan with dates, milestones and accountability mechanisms b. Start small (Instead of one month using a different OS, how about day and go from there) c. Make it meaningful, Know why you're making a Committment, Be Selective (Have an intrinsic motivation to make a change in your everyday life) d. Stay the course (If you get off track, get back on) edit: form…

That is a good idea, make a plan and try to stick with it. BTW, I find Google Calendar to be good for posting reminders to myself to do different things throughout the year: quarterly taxes, contacting people in a few months to check on how their project, etc. is going, delivery milestones, etc. I like Google Calendar because event alerts also hit me on my Droid and iPad.

Re: Resolutions for programmers

#35

Post by fredus » Tue, Jan 03, 2012, 5:43 PM UTC

Get serious with Testing? :-)

Re: Resolutions for programmers

#36

Post by systemizer » Tue, Jan 03, 2012, 5:47 PM UTC

candre717 wrote: post #23

systemizer wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're in a startup that is up for trying new things, I think having a group of developers working together on these resolutions would be a great idea. Let them take 5-10% of their time during the day to work towards these resolutions. Happy developers == healthy developers == productive developers. Plus, working together with other people always gives you motivation to complete tasks, whether it be working out at…

Systemizer, why do you think that is that working with others helps us achieve our goals? I have generally believed that, too. But, on second thought, wouldn't having more people complicate planning thus thwarting progress?

Good point. I think it breaks down to accountability.

If you work with 10 people on a project, you are not as accountable because everyone else is responsible for the project as well.

However, if you are working with 1 other person, that person holds you accountable for everything; you have no excuses to not complete the project.

Finally, if you are working by yourself, you are only holding yourself accountable; this is bound to fail. You need some external influence of motivation to continue on, and oftentimes you need more than your own motivation.

Taking it to the extremes, if you work with 100 people to lear, then you probably won't have the motivation to do it. There are many reasons why, but to make a simple argument: the more people, the worse. However, if you work with just your friend, then you rely on one another to complete the goal. It is ment

Re: Resolutions for programmers

#37

Post by mark_l_watson » Tue, Jan 03, 2012, 5:49 PM UTC

maeon3 wrote: post #3

Programmers stuck inside who need fitness ideas get out and meet people. Go to meetup.com, type in your area and type in running, health and fitness. Find a running club where you meet up somewhere and run around a loop, trail, or city area. I found that extremely rewarding. It is a filter to screen out the fraggles from the doozers.

Great idea. I belong to two different hiking groups so I have scheduled hikes every Monday and Thursday mornings. I find that when I am really busy (usually writing code) that having scheduled breaks helps a lot; same comment for scheduled dinner parties, lunches out, and other social events.

Re: Resolutions for programmers

#38

Post by jules » Tue, Jan 03, 2012, 5:54 PM UTC

parfe wrote: post #2

Learn Dvorak - I'd warn against bothering with Dvorak. Huge time sink with dubious claims of speed improvements. While a mythical programmer may exist who feels his raw typing speed limits his productivity, I never met that unicorn. While learning you have an increased error rate, run into incompatibility with other programmers and programs (emacs or vim... good luck) and end up needing to defend something no one act…

Learn Colemak [1] instead. The change in comfort when typing is incredible. The difference in how much you need to move your fingers when typing is big. Typing with QWERTY feels you moving your fingers all over the place as fast as possible; typing with Colemak feels like letters flowing off your hands. Whether it is faster I do not know (obviously after years of using Colemak and rarely using QWERTY I type faster on Colemak, although I can still touch type on QWERTY -- something that most Dvorak typists seem to lose). The big difference is with comfort. Colemak is also much easier to learn for programming if you already know QWERTY because the punctuation (and some of the letters) stays in the same place.

http://colemak.com/

Re: Resolutions for programmers

#39

Post by finnw » Tue, Jan 03, 2012, 5:55 PM UTC

teeray wrote: post #14

I'd like to add a caveat to the "Implement a cryptosystem" suggestion--Implement one, but DO NOT USE IT. It's a fun challenge, but only fools use their own crypto libraries.

Better still, implement one, assume it is broken, and find out why.

Re: Resolutions for programmers

#40

Post by Groxx » Tue, Jan 03, 2012, 5:58 PM UTC

mattmight wrote: post #4

parfe wrote: post #2

Learn Dvorak - I'd warn against bothering with Dvorak. Huge time sink with dubious claims of speed improvements. While a mythical programmer may exist who feels his raw typing speed limits his productivity, I never met that unicorn. While learning you have an increased error rate, run into incompatibility with other programmers and programs (emacs or vim... good luck) and end up needing to defend something no one act…

I learned Dvorak to help with RSI. It worked. I'm fast at Dvorak after 4 years (90 wpm), but not as fast as I was with Qwerty (120 wpm). Dvorak has a pleasant "rolling" finger feel and my wrists never ache, so I've kept it. What fascinated me about learning Dvorak was that I felt like a stroke patient. Suddenly, I could not do something I had been able to do for years. It made me consider the cost of a keystroke. Gre…

I used to have wrist pain after particularly-long coding bouts. Then I decided to type like you play piano - hands up, wrists straight, move arms rather than wrists to punch keys in other locations.

No pain again. Ever. Only later did I find out that it's the recommended wrist posture. I still cringe a bit when I see people buying keyboards with wrist-rests (and using them), especially "ergonomic" ones - why improve one ergonomic point while intentionally worsening another?