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Source of my problems: design issues 5% architecture constraints 5% language shortcomings 1% mental blocks 5% personal time management 4% personal energy 5% communication with others 75% I waste more time just trying to figure out what others are trying to say, sometimes in person and by voice, but mostly in writing. For most emails, I have to click "reply" or call back simply because what you're trying to tell me is…
I asked him what I needed to do/study to be better than other programmers. I started asking, "should I study C, Java (it had just come out), etc. He said study something to improve your communication. He said in the real world business just look at you as a computer person. They don't know the difference between a programmer, network engineer, PC support person, etc.
He said anyone can code and the ones that are way better will not be recognized enough by management to make a difference in their careers. Since computer people are sort of known as introverts, just being able to speak well and communicate with everyone will go further than being the expert at language X.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Please" considered harmful?
In a series of posts that uses it to self-promotion? IMHO yes.
Namely -- Frank Rubin published a criticism of Dijkstra's letter in the March 1987 CACM where it appeared under the title 'GOTO Considered Harmful' Considered Harmful. The May 1987 CACM printed further replies, both for and against, under the title '"GOTO Considered Harmful" Considered Harmful' Considered Harmful?. Dijkstra's own response to this controversy was titled On a Somewhat Disappointing Correspondence.
:-)
An interesting take on the topic. I would tend to agree with it. I've always maintained that it takes a certain something to be a programmer. The specific language is less important if you have a "programmer's mind". I've worked with a bunch of different languages. Once you get over the varied learning curve of the exact syntax and structure, it really just leaves you with the general logic and planning and all the s…
If you have great content in your writing, the reader will treat "syntax errors" as "warnings."
1. Explaining to your entire user base what you're up to helps you focus your efforts on meaningful demonstrable progress instead of gold-plating.
2. It has been said a hundred times before, but the way to get better at writing is to write.
3. People prefer incremental changes over disruptive redesigns, especially if they are given a heads-up before the incremental changes happen.
4. People care about the quality of writing. I've gotten a bunch of comments about how they actually enjoy reading the newsletter. That was totally unexpected.
5. Tone matters. I've found a good conversational tone that incorporates just a touch of humor and self-deprecation without being too casual. My userbase is non-technical, so I can't leak jargon on them. Metaphors help.
6. Cadence matters. Writing a weekly update is much easier than writing an update "just whenever".
7. Having an editor helps. I generally write the entire message, but pass it along to comrade to send it out to see if anything is confusing, I've made any typos, or forgot to finish one of my sentenc
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Making the online communications situation worse is the proliferation of "short" communication methods (ex: IM, Twitter, FB Status messages, etc.). Written communication is naturally more challenging than face to face verbal communication. These "short" communication modes make things worse, opening up all sorts of possibilities for misinterpretation and miscommunication. I felt so shackled by IM conversations, that…
I've tried both, and for coding-related stuff, I really dislike phone (or Skype), ranking it just about the worst possible option. I'd much rather IRC or IM, where at least we can exchange code and links and there's a bit of a scrollback buffer. Twitter and FB status messages I put in a different category, because it's difficult to have a proper conversation with them. It's pretty easy to have a proper conversation o…
But what about this compromise: Skype voice conversation + skype text-chat for showing each other code snippets.
The next great thing will be a post titled: "Please: stop with 'please' titles"
And HackerNews will have been successfully trolled again.