Ask HN: I am busy with too many things at once

#1

Post by mannimow » Fri, Jul 03, 2015, 7:05 AM UTC

Hi NH.

A couple of years ago I realised I was a mediocre programmer. After 5 years of work experience with unfinished degree I knew only one language (php of all...) and some good practices on a surface level. I set that for change. For 2 years I studied in my spare time, learned a bit of Java, go, clojure, learned some fundamentals and good practices classics (gang of four, DRY) started reading blogs and following the industry.

Except, it's too much. I realised I am into too many things. I know a bit of everything, but not too many things well. I want to study data science, maths, devops and find that my desire is driven by fear of becoming outdated and irrelevant. I would appreciate a piece of advise on managing the learning process, get the joy of tinkering back and conquering the anxiety of ever changing rules to the game. Thank you.

Re: Ask HN: I am busy with too many things at once

#2

Post by adyus » Fri, Jul 03, 2015, 7:14 AM UTC

I'd suggest focusing on getting something to work, regardless of what you write it in. Then, if time allows and if it gets traction, refactor it.

But the main focus should be to get something working.

Re: Ask HN: I am busy with too many things at once

#3

Post by eru » Fri, Jul 03, 2015, 7:21 AM UTC

> I want to study data science, maths, devops and find that my desire is driven by fear of becoming outdated and irrelevant. [..] and conquering the anxiety of ever changing rules to the game.

If that is your genuine concern, I'd suggest focussing on timeless topics. Two easy rule of thumbs: (1) if it's been around for a while and still relevant, it's probably going to stay that way (eg compilers/parsers, operating systems). (2) if it's hard and math-y, it has a good chance at staying power, even if new.

In any case, do what adyus said: pick one thing, and ship, ship, ship.

Some inspirational reading: Peter Norvig's "Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years" (http://norvig.com/21-days.html), Richard Hamming's "You and Your Research" (https://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html). Or if you are of a more entrepreneurial bend, P.T. Barnum's "The Art of Money Getting" (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/8581/8581-h/8581-h.htm)

Happy to talk in private. My email is in my profile.

(Some snark thrown in for free: forget about OOP design patterns.)

Re: Ask HN: I am busy with too many things at once

#4

Post by a3voices » Fri, Jul 03, 2015, 7:22 AM UTC

Look just finish a project, it doesn't matter what it is, and it'll resolve a lot the issues you're fighting with.

Re: Ask HN: I am busy with too many things at once

#5

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jul 03, 2015, 7:24 AM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: I am busy with too many things at once

#6

Post by andreasklinger » Fri, Jul 03, 2015, 7:24 AM UTC

a3voices wrote: post #4

Look just finish a project, it doesn't matter what it is, and it'll resolve a lot the issues you're fighting with.

Agree.

Deadlines provide constraints. Constraints help with prioritization.

Re: Ask HN: I am busy with too many things at once

#7

Post by ibash » Fri, Jul 03, 2015, 7:25 AM UTC

Congratulations, it sounds like you made measurable progress toward your goal. I think the best you can do is embrace the fact that:

1. It's always changing

2. Feel confident in that something that you learn will become relevant again

3. You can't know everything

In addition, find a team that will help you learn and practice everything you are interested in. Look for a company/team where individual engineers have to wear many hats.

Re: Ask HN: I am busy with too many things at once

#8

Post by Tharkun » Fri, Jul 03, 2015, 7:27 AM UTC

I recommend you read The Passionate Programmer. It is full of good career advice. And if it won't tell you what to focus on, it'll help you find out what you want to focus on.

Re: Ask HN: I am busy with too many things at once

#9

Post by hv23 » Fri, Jul 03, 2015, 7:28 AM UTC

Apart from the desire to learn those skills that you state is driven by fear, with a bit of introspection can you cut through that and articulate your actual core desires? i.e. when you're able to quiet that nagging voice, what topics/subjects/work bring you true joy/pleasure? Put differently — if you had infinite money what would you want to spend your time working on?

Re: Ask HN: I am busy with too many things at once

#10

Post by nchelluri » Fri, Jul 03, 2015, 7:33 AM UTC

I have been programming for over 20 years and have very similar thoughts all the time :)

My eyes are bigger than my stomach. I believe that these days it's probably impossible for anyone to really understand everything.

Personally, I think PHP is a fine language when coded well (most of my PHP looks like my Java, though I haven't coded much PHP since just before the introduction of lambdas). I feel like it undeservedly gets a bad rap, perhaps because it's so easy to write horrible code in it. But that is just evidence of its complete accessibility in my books. I think that some of the coworkers I had at my PHP jobs would agree that it is an adequate tool for the job of web development (some people even use it for other purposes, but that's not my style).

I wish I could give you some solid advice, but I don't feel qualified to do so. I will say, however, my favorite experiences in programming have always been upon completion of a project -- seeing it go live, get real users, and actually work, from start to finish. Most of those times have been in my professional career where I was paid to complete something and had a hard deadline (that has nearly always slipped), but a few have been school assignments and personal or open-source projects that have 0 or nearly 0 users. Sometimes solving a problem or scratching an itch is just the thing I need.

Also, in nearly every case where I've shipped production code, I look back on it fondly some years later (especially if it is still running and getting used) and think, "damn, I must have done an incredible job. I got everything just right." But on the rare occasions where I get to look back at the source code, it's always got plenty of TODOs lying around, and things I wanted to fix, stuff I would do if I had a bit more time but just never got to, etc. It's never perfect... but sometimes it still works. Memory is a funny thing.

Finally, someone linked this on a vaguely similar thread recently: https://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~kilcup/262/feynman.html - I thought it was great.

Here's that thread, BTW, which you may also enjoy: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9796203 -- some really quality responses on there, IMO.