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Stuck due to “knowing too much”

programmers.stackexchange.com

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Re: Stuck due to “knowing too much”

#21

Post by pooriaazimi »

frankc wrote: post #7

The moderation on programmers.stackexchange.com is completely overbearing. How can a question about analysis paralysis be closed for off-topic? If stackoverflow is for technical question/answer, what is the point the linked stackexchange if not for discussion of a common programmer problem like this? I see stuff like this closed all time time and it's really annoying.

WOW!

I looked it up now[1] and it seems that this kind of questions are supposed to be asked on programmers.etackexchange.com!

This is what FAQ says. 2nd, 4th, 7th and 8th are exactly what this question is about!

""" Programmers — Stack Exchange is a site for professional programmers who are interested in getting expert answers on conceptual questions about software development. If you have a question about... """

1 - algorithm and data structure concepts

2 - design patterns

3 - developer testing

4 - development methodologies

5 - freelancing and business concerns

6 - quality assurance

7 - software architecture

8 - software engineering

9 - software licensing

So, Jarrod Roberson, GrandmasterB, gnat, Walter and ChrisF♦, you are all bozos, you shouldn't have closed this question.

[1]: http://programmers.stackexchange.com/faq

Re: Stuck due to “knowing too much”

#22

Post by phalasz »

pooriaazimi wrote: post #20
frankc wrote: post #7

The moderation on programmers.stackexchange.com is completely overbearing. How can a question about analysis paralysis be closed for off-topic? If stackoverflow is for technical question/answer, what is the point the linked stackexchange if not for discussion of a common programmer problem like this? I see stuff like this closed all time time and it's really annoying.

It might be off-topic for StackOverflow,but how on earth is this off-topic on programmers.stackexchange?! If such discussions are off-topic, then why did they create programmers.stackexchange in the first place?

My thoughts exactly.

And as other pointed out earlier, this happens all the time.

Re: Stuck due to “knowing too much”

#23

Post by breckinloggins »

frankc wrote: post #7

The moderation on programmers.stackexchange.com is completely overbearing. How can a question about analysis paralysis be closed for off-topic? If stackoverflow is for technical question/answer, what is the point the linked stackexchange if not for discussion of a common programmer problem like this? I see stuff like this closed all time time and it's really annoying.

The sad part is it's predictable. Upon seeing the link on HN, my thought process went like this: "Ahh, an interesting and thought-provoking discussion on a StackExchange site? It will be closed."

click

sigh

So, a question to our StackExchange overlords: you clearly do not believe that the popular StackExchange sites are the appropriate place for this content. With that in mind, what alternative would you recommend?

Re: Stuck due to “knowing too much”

#24

Post by angdis »

frankc wrote: post #7

The moderation on programmers.stackexchange.com is completely overbearing. How can a question about analysis paralysis be closed for off-topic? If stackoverflow is for technical question/answer, what is the point the linked stackexchange if not for discussion of a common programmer problem like this? I see stuff like this closed all time time and it's really annoying.

While I agree that very often interesting topics get closed, they DO HAVE a good reason for doing so.

The intent of all the stack-exchange sites is to provide a high-quality resource of _answers_ for specific _questions_. If "the answer" to a question ends up being a divergent discussion, then not closing responses invites more of these types of questions. Over time that will subvert the intent of stack-exchange.

The POV of the stack-exchange folks is that there are plenty of forums for discussion, and that is NOT what they want to do. Hacker-news, however, is more free-form and definitely much better for "need advice" type questions with highly subjective answers.

That said, it is true that moderators sometimes get persnickety about what they close. I wish that at least they would be less smug and judgmental about how they do that. But oh well, it is still an awesome resource.

Re: Stuck due to “knowing too much”

#25

Post by marcusf »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #13
frankc wrote: post #7

The moderation on programmers.stackexchange.com is completely overbearing. How can a question about analysis paralysis be closed for off-topic? If stackoverflow is for technical question/answer, what is the point the linked stackexchange if not for discussion of a common programmer problem like this? I see stuff like this closed all time time and it's really annoying.

Ditto for StackOverflow itself? I just can't understand why so often a really valuable topic that collects insightful answers gets closed up because of not fitting some template. Also, I don't get the idea of "protected questions" - the ones marked by: "This question is protected to prevent "thanks!", "me too!", or spam answers by new users. To answer it, you must have earned at least 10 reputation on this site." Wha…

Probably based on experience, it wasn't like that initially if I remember correctly.

Re: Stuck due to “knowing too much”

#26

Post by stcredzero »

A situation I have seen with well-educated novice developers, is that they think of "technical debt" as universally bad. That's not true. It's not even true for actual debt.

Debt is only bad if it's your own long-term debt. One can also use short-term debt as a powerful tool.

For example, it might be simpler for one to write an initial iteration of a program that's badly factored. Then, once you get the program running correctly, refactor it. It's much easier to know you're on the right path if your program runs correctly, and you have verification data-sets or unit tests.

EDIT: Changed one short to long.

Re: Stuck due to “knowing too much”

#27

Post by geophile »

Some lessons in software engineering take a long, long time to sink in. (For me, at least):

- Don't generalize too early, which seems to address the original question pretty directly.

- Don't optimize too early.

- Maintainable > Correct > Fast. Maintainable = comprehensible. If it isn't maintainable, you won't know if it's correct. If it isn't correct, there's no point in making it fast.

- Minimize state. Deriving something from scratch every time it's needed leads to far fewer bugs, and the bugs there are probably far more obvious. Cache only when you need to for performance.

- Simplify as much as you can. This is the hardest one, because it can take a very long time to figure out all the ways in which a design that you thought was simple, turns out not to be.

- Simplify some more: The usual statement of the "simplify" rule is "as simple as possible, but no simpler". I don't think that's right. If you see a nice simplification at odds with requirements, push back on requirements.

Re: Stuck due to “knowing too much”

#28

Post by Zarathust »

frankc wrote: post #7

The moderation on programmers.stackexchange.com is completely overbearing. How can a question about analysis paralysis be closed for off-topic? If stackoverflow is for technical question/answer, what is the point the linked stackexchange if not for discussion of a common programmer problem like this? I see stuff like this closed all time time and it's really annoying.

7.5k views _today_. But they know what we want so why bother?

Re: Stuck due to “knowing too much”

#30

Post by joshklein »

This is one of the most pernicious forms of procrastination, because it's hard for smart people to accept that perfectionism is a negative trait. The more self-worth you derive from your previous successful outcomes, the more susceptible your ego becomes to fear of future failures. Your amygdala is telling you that you are successful already, so don't shake the boat. Tread carefully and you'll always have an excuse for why things don't work out. You'll never have to admit you just couldn't do it.

The solution is to divorce your self-worth from outcomes. Instead, derive self-worth from the process. We can have complete control over our actions, but never complete control over our outcomes.

This is far easier said than done.

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