I decided I would write a short story everyday. Ended up forcing myself to write random gibberish for a few days before i gave up.
Write Code Every Day
181–190 of 221 posts
Re: Write Code Every Day
#182Inspirational post. Last year, I [1] set a goal to teach myself git by committing at least once every day for a month. At the end of this, I saw the streak, and was too afraid to see it go down to 1 in a snap. Ever since, I've been committing code daily, and it's been about 40 weeks, and I'm still going strong. Being a full time student, this wasn't really easy for me, but I'm proud of myself. The one thing I learned…
Being fairly new to programming, I usually have a hard time coming up with realistic/manageable ideas that can be completed in a reasonable timeframe.
Your huge list of projects has been a huge help in that regard, so thanks!
Re: Write Code Every Day
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
He works on Dart for Google. I also find him an excellent critic (inclusive of dart) in forums. Some of his insights have cleared up things for me that are expressed vaguely elsewhere in comparison. I would like to see him do something more expansive on the tradeoffs between objects and ADTs (hint hint). Maybe he has done but I can't find it.
> I would like to see him do something more expansive on the tradeoffs between objects and ADTs (hint hint). I'm probably not the best person to answer that. My knowledge of real academic theory isn't as strong as I'd like, especially around type systems. I assume you've read William Cook's paper on the same topic ("Object-Oriented Programming Versus Abstract Data Types")? I skimmed it a while back and felt like it c…
Well it was worth a shot anyway (you made some comment in that area before that I thought was good). I need to go back over that Cook paper myself. Thanks for reminding me.
Re: Write Code Every Day
#184I am a total convert to the "don't break the chain" idea. I started writing a book on game programming[1] about four years ago. At the time, I was working at EA, miserable, and highly motivated to have the book done so it could help pad my resume. I got a book deal (O'Reilly) then, when that fell through, another (Apress). I had a real writing schedule, and a very supportive wife, and I would work on it for hours at…
The "don't break the chain" rule is brittle: if you do break the chain, your motivation can crater. I think [Beeminder]( http://beeminder.com/ ) has a clever solution to this problem; it gives you a way to track and enforce your goals while being robust to the occasional lapse.
That has to be one of the most interesting monetization ideas I've seen in quite some time. Pretty genius (I'm assuming the money if you go off track goes to them) :D
Re: Write Code Every Day
#185Telling a programmer to write code every day is a bit like asking an aspiring carpenter to swing a hammer: it's a necessary component of improving your skills and building things, but it is also a narrow, technical task that has limited value in isolation. Having said that, programmers should spend at least as much time reading and thinking about code as they do writing it. You can write code for hours each day and d…
True.
The statement "Practice makes perfect." is false if you don't invest time in reading, thinking, doing retrospectives of your work. The 50/50 ratio seems fair enough.
Re: Write Code Every Day
#186I'm guessing this doesn't apply to the average developer; after all, we write code for a living. I sure do. I don't usually do any coding when not on the clock, after all, I've already done 8ish hours of work by then (and if I'm lucky, most of it spent coding).
Re: Write Code Every Day
#187Very inspiring, but take into account that John (most likely) lives in a good enviroment to proceed with this, his job is intellectually demanding but he is not overworked or extramulti-tasked.
If your job leaves you depleted, and when you arrive home you're like a husk of a human being you can't expect to do something like this.
Take into account that great developers like John live in a place where they can grow, you can't copy what they do and expect to have the same great results in a not so great environment.
Re: Write Code Every Day
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you still in the game dev field? Great job on the book by the way. Edit: Oh, are you the one whom Herb Sutter used his benchmark in the Build conference talk about C++ a few days ago?
> Are you still in the game dev field? No, I left EA about four years ago. I was hoping to stay in the game industry but somehow snuck into Google instead. I'm working on Dart now and couldn't be happier. > Oh, are you the one whom Herb Sutter used his benchmark in the Build conference talk about C++ a few days ago? Yup!
Interesting, how did you end up in Dart team? I mean that "famous" Google-way of randomly assigning employees to projects. And is there any way to apply directly to Dart (or any other) team?
Re: Write Code Every Day
#189This reminds me my 'Half hour' productivity hack that I've been testing last year: http://blog.self.li/post/34104114881/4-weeks-into-half-hour-...
Re: Write Code Every Day
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd agree with you if my primary desire were to improve my ability as a programmer. Unfortunately, at least at this time, it's not. My major concern is getting meaningful work done. I spend far too much time thinking and reading about technologies, techniques, and planning for the future - more time needs to be spent on actually implementing all the amazing stuff that you want to exist.
I have the exact same problem, I love learning new stuff, thinking about new projects, mentally designing code and UIs... but I do much less of actual coding done than I would want to. One reason is that once the novelty of the project wears of, it becomes a boring routine work.
maybe if you keep your projects in the "really small" size bin you can actually finish them before the boredom sets in. and the positive feedback loop might even prop you up to see a bit bigger projects through.