Cognitive load is what matters

Post by mdaniel » Sat, Aug 30, 2025, 5:04 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #89

mdaniel wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For my frame of reference, do you think the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator are psycho-bullshit, too? Because I had characterized personas as a very similar "of course it's a generalization" and OP even said themselves "every engineer is a mix" but if you're coming from stance that bucketing people is disrespectful, then your perspective on MBTI would help me digest your stance

I briefly flagged the preceding comment for "psycho-bullshit" before concluding that it was just a really forceful way to say the developer personas were pseudoscientific (of course they are, nobody is claiming otherwise) but I think it's worth calling out that MBTI is also pseudoscientific; it has no real validity, or even test-test reliability.

Post by makeitdouble » Sat, Aug 30, 2025, 5:13 PM UTC

gherkinnn wrote: post #120

makeitdouble wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What difference do you see from a Mort ? If there is no inherent complexity, a Mort will come up with the simplest solution. If it's a complex problem needing trade-offs the Mort will come up with the fastest and most business centric solution. Or would you see that Amanda refactoring a whole system to keep it simple above all whatever the deadlines and stakes ?

Mort is happy with an if soup. Amanda sees what the if soup ought to do and replaces it with a simple state machine and fixes two bugs along the way.

Post by lgessler » Sat, Aug 30, 2025, 5:15 PM UTC

Disposal8433 wrote: post #75

noen wrote: post #18

This article reminds me of my early days at Microsoft. I spent 8 years in the Developer Division (DevDiv). Microsoft had three personas for software engineers that were eventually retired for a much more complex persona framework called people in context (the irony in relation to this article isn’t lost on me). But those original personas still stick with me and have been incredibly valuable in my career to understan…

> three personas for software engineers The kind of psycho-bullshit that we should stay away from, and wouldn't happen if we respected each other. Coming from Microsoft is not surprising though.

Post by HumblyTossed » Sat, Aug 30, 2025, 5:17 PM UTC

noen wrote: post #18

This article reminds me of my early days at Microsoft. I spent 8 years in the Developer Division (DevDiv). Microsoft had three personas for software engineers that were eventually retired for a much more complex persona framework called people in context (the irony in relation to this article isn’t lost on me). But those original personas still stick with me and have been incredibly valuable in my career to understan…

Post by Tarks » Sat, Aug 30, 2025, 5:21 PM UTC

semiinfinitely wrote: post #112

The ability to create code that imposes low cognitive load on others not only is a rare and difficult skill to cultivate- it takes active effort and persistence to do even for someone who already has the ability and motivation. I think fundamentally the developer is computing a mental compression of the core ideas - distilling them to their essence - and then making sure that the code exposes only the minimum essenti…