Fast
catherinejue.com
Fast
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Re: Fast
#2Kinda funny but I think LLM-assisted workflows are frequently slow -- that is, if I use the "refactor" features in my IDE it is done in a second, if I ask the faster kind of assistant it comes back in 30 seconds, if I ask the "agentic" kind of assistant it comes back in 15 minutes.
I asked an agent to write an http endpoint at the end of the work day when I had just 30 min left -- my first thought was "it took 10 minutes to do what would have taken a day", but then I thought, "maybe it was 20 minutes for 4 hours worth of work". The next day I looked at it and found the logic was convoluted, it tried to write good error handling but didn't succeed. I went back and forth and ultimately wound up recoding a lot of stuff manually. In 5 hours I had it done for real, certainly with a better test suite than I would have written on my own and probably better error handling.
See https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1lxh8ip/study_...
Re: Fast
#3> Rarely in software does anyone ask for “fast.”
> But software that's fast changes behavior.
I wonder if the author stopped to consider why these opposing points make sense, instead of ignoring one to justify the other.
My opinion is that "fast" only becomes a boon when features are robust and reliable. If you prioritize going twice as "fast" over rooting out the problems, you get problems at twice the rate too.
Re: Fast
#4> Rarely in software does anyone ask for “fast.” > But software that's fast changes behavior. I wonder if the author stopped to consider why these opposing points make sense, instead of ignoring one to justify the other. My opinion is that "fast" only becomes a boon when features are robust and reliable. If you prioritize going twice as "fast" over rooting out the problems, you get problems at twice the rate too.
"The only way to go fast, is to go well." ― Robert C. Martin
Re: Fast
#5>> Rarely in software does anyone ask for “fast.”
I have been asking about Latency-Free Computing for a very long time. Every Computing now is slow.
Re: Fast
#6Highly Agree.
Speed of all kinds is incredibly important. Give me all of it.
- Fast developers
- Fast test suites
- Fast feedback loops
- Fast experimentation
Someone (Napoleon?) is credited with saying "quantity has a quality all its own", in software it is "velocity has a quality all its own".
As long as there is some rigor and you aren't shipping complete slop, consistently moving very quickly fixes almost every other deficiency.
- It makes engineering mistakes cheaper (just fix them fast)
- It make product experimentation easy (we can test this fast and revert if needed)
- It makes developers ramp up quickly (shipping code increases confidence and knowledge)
- It actually makes rigor more feasible as the most effective rigorous processes are light weight and built-in.
Every line of code is a liability, the system that enables it to change rapidly is the asset.
Side note: every time I encounter JVM test startup lag I think someday I am going to die and will have spent time doing _this_.
Re: Fast
#7> Rarely in software does anyone ask for “fast.”
Are you kidding me? My product owner and management ask me all the time to implement features "fast".
Re: Fast
#8Reminds me "Fast Software, the Best Software" by Craig Mod: https://craigmod.com/essays/fast_software/
Re: Fast
#9A lot of people have low expectations from having to use shit products at work, and generally not being discerning.
Speed is what made Google, which was a consumer product at the time. (I say this because it matters more in consumer products.)
Re: Fast
#10Highly Agree. Speed of all kinds is incredibly important. Give me all of it. - Fast developers - Fast test suites - Fast feedback loops - Fast experimentation Someone (Napoleon?) is credited with saying "quantity has a quality all its own", in software it is "velocity has a quality all its own". As long as there is some rigor and you aren't shipping complete slop, consistently moving very quickly fixes almost every o…
For inspiration in this direction see Patrick Collison's great list: https://patrickcollison.com/fast