If programming was 'easy', we would probably be having trouble finding work.
Why Programming is Difficult
51–60 of 175 posts
Re: Why Programming is Difficult
#52I think programming is easy. When I sit down to code something, it feels deterministic, and everything falls into place. I attribute this to: 1) IQ 3 standard deviations above. If I hadn't been this way when I started, I probably wouldn't have started. 2) I've been practicing hard, 25 years. That's a lot of time to try a lot of ways to do a lot of things, and find what works. Here's what's difficult for me, and what…
Just because you feel things are easy doesn't mean you're doing it right ;) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
Just because the Dunning-Kruger effect exists doesn't mean that skilled people who can accurately self-assess don't also exist.
Re: Why Programming is Difficult
#53I enjoyed this post for one very simple reason: it makes me realize that, no, I am not the only one who dislikes these parts of programming. Too often when problems like those mentioned by Joe are brought up in discussion, the (seemingly) majority of programmers argue that these are just complexities we have to deal with. Perhaps they're just the vocal ones. I admit, it is a pragmatic attitude, but I constantly daydr…
I have always argued that programming is not "intellectually difficult" (for me) but is rather "emotionally difficult" for a lot of the reasons mentioned in the blog post.
Re: Why Programming is Difficult
#54I think programming is easy. When I sit down to code something, it feels deterministic, and everything falls into place. I attribute this to: 1) IQ 3 standard deviations above. If I hadn't been this way when I started, I probably wouldn't have started. 2) I've been practicing hard, 25 years. That's a lot of time to try a lot of ways to do a lot of things, and find what works. Here's what's difficult for me, and what…
Do you think that your inability to relate to other people in your organization is related to your obvious superiority complex?
No one cares what your IQ is. There are many different kinds of intelligence and some of them, like social and emotional intelligence, also contribute to your personal success within any particular organization.
Re: Why Programming is Difficult
#55Re: Why Programming is Difficult
#56Most difficult part for me is letting go. I am compelled to febreeze every bit of code smell I come across. I often rewrite large sections of working code into better structures, more readable/concise syntax, better naming of variables/functions, etc. and In the process I have at times introduced bugs. But that isn't enough to deter me. I feel like I've accomplished something but in reality I have done nothing. It's…
"Art is never finished, only abandoned." -Leonardo da Vinci
This is a great metaphor for software. There is diminishing returns to refactoring and elegance. Sometimes the open source community goes too far (ever try submitting patches to big OSS projects.. Some are ridiculously picky with minor details like code style.)
Re: Why Programming is Difficult
#57I think programming is easy. When I sit down to code something, it feels deterministic, and everything falls into place. I attribute this to: 1) IQ 3 standard deviations above. If I hadn't been this way when I started, I probably wouldn't have started. 2) I've been practicing hard, 25 years. That's a lot of time to try a lot of ways to do a lot of things, and find what works. Here's what's difficult for me, and what…
Paraphrasing Feynman:
You do not understand "ordinary people." To you they are 'stupid fools' -- so you will not tolerate them or treat their foibles with tolerance or patience -- but will drive yourself wild (or they will drive you wild) trying to deal with them in an effective way.
Find a way to do your programming with as little contact with non-technical people as possible, with one exception, fall madly in love! This is my advice, my friend.
Re: Why Programming is Difficult
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Good Article, I have found the hardest part of software to be the team work. This... I'm trying to work with someone whose only programming experience is with IDEs on Windows that hand-hold every step of the way. Something as simple as creating a file, compiling it and running it in a terminal is something he's never done. I've spent more time trying to explain incredibly basic concepts than actually getting anythi…
Taking a day to teach someone an entirely new (and arguably extremely backward) workflow is exasperating to you?
It's not about the workflow - it's about the fact that things like compiling files, linking libraries, are kind of basic concepts.
For his prior apps (flash) he created objects using only a graphical interface (never wrote a single class), and the 'program' was a single 9000 line file where everything (all vars, functions, etc...) was in the global namespace with absolutely no organization, encapsulation, etc...
Anyhow, for someone who claims to have been programming for 10+ years, I'd expect some understanding of how the underlying technology works, how languages and compilers work, etc...
I mean, I like convenience as much as anyone (my Vim setup behaves like an IDE with code completion, automatic compiling, etc...), but knowing the command line is a good thing when the app you want to build involves a Unix-y server...
Re: Why Programming is Difficult
#59I think programming is easy. When I sit down to code something, it feels deterministic, and everything falls into place. I attribute this to: 1) IQ 3 standard deviations above. If I hadn't been this way when I started, I probably wouldn't have started. 2) I've been practicing hard, 25 years. That's a lot of time to try a lot of ways to do a lot of things, and find what works. Here's what's difficult for me, and what…
"I attribute this to IQ 3 standard deviation above..". Did you really just say that? If you're so smart why didn't you complete the sentence?
Re: Why Programming is Difficult
#60I think programming is easy. When I sit down to code something, it feels deterministic, and everything falls into place. I attribute this to: 1) IQ 3 standard deviations above. If I hadn't been this way when I started, I probably wouldn't have started. 2) I've been practicing hard, 25 years. That's a lot of time to try a lot of ways to do a lot of things, and find what works. Here's what's difficult for me, and what…
> I think programming is easy. When I sit down to code something, it feels deterministic, and everything falls into place
this is something i've always felt and was always confused by when I saw others coding. Nothing was ever "hard," coding just made sense to me. So logical, so easy to do, concepts may be difficult to grasp at first, but it never took long to grasp and commit it to memory.