I liked the (audio) book Spark - turns out aerobic exercise is really good for you.
The real “must have” tools for programming
11–20 of 26 posts
Re: The real “must have” tools for programming
#12Was pleasantly surprised with the list. Agree with all of them. The last point about notebooks has especially been useful for me the past few year. There's just something different about using it to help you think. Most of the time, I don't finish fleshing out an idea on paper. But the act of writing (or drawing) it somehow helps me explore new concepts faster. After that I just continue coding or whatever the next s…
Some people need a notebook. I don't. I've never found extra productivity from jotting things down like that. And over the years people have actually made me feel bad about that "you don't write things down? you should, it helps organise your mind" whatever. Put a pen in my hand and a doodle comes out. I have a good memory and I can usually visualize problems, and when I cannot then I use computer based drawing tools…
This definitely. Don't feel pressured to do it if it doesn't work for you.
For me the notebook isn't actually for memory. Those kind of notes are better on digital so I can access & edit them everywhere (I use notion for those). The only times I'd read what I scribbled is when I context switch and need to remember what I was doing. It's more of a scratch pad really. Figma also works well for this. Just depending on the work.
I will say that writing or pretending to write notes is almost a super power. In the same way that some people ask "you don't write things down?", I found that people tend to think I'm more disciplined or hard working when I'm on my notes.
Can't say I haven't pretended to write notes before :)
Re: The real “must have” tools for programming
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some people need a notebook. I don't. I've never found extra productivity from jotting things down like that. And over the years people have actually made me feel bad about that "you don't write things down? you should, it helps organise your mind" whatever. Put a pen in my hand and a doodle comes out. I have a good memory and I can usually visualize problems, and when I cannot then I use computer based drawing tools…
Do you have digital notes of some kind? Even just a massive “notes.txt” file? Curious because there’s just so much stuff out there. If I don’t write it down somewhere searchable I’m doomed to repeat the mistake in the future. But I have crappy memory for this kind of stuff.
That's why Google Keep, Evernote etc were build.
Re: The real “must have” tools for programming
#14I liked the (audio) book Spark - turns out aerobic exercise is really good for you.
Did anyone ever think it wasn't?
Re: The real “must have” tools for programming
#15Very true. I've seen too many engineers lose focus easily due to poor sleep. What's even worse is that many of my fellow engineers lost curiosity over time. They thought it was due to age or burden from raising a family, but it's really about managing energy. Intense curiosity requires intensive mental energy, which one can't get from drinking coffee all day.
+1 to stopping the coffee.
Recently discovered cardamom tea, which consists of loose leaf western-style tea infused with cardamom oil. You can buy it from Iranian supermarkets. Great stuff. Also like and recommend both ginger tea and lemongrass tea.
Re: The real “must have” tools for programming
#16I would add "proper diet" to this list. You still feel like shit even if you do everything from this list but eat only doritos and drink litres of mountain dew. Sleep-diet-exercise is the holy trinity of health and maintaining good baseline of mental performance.
Re: The real “must have” tools for programming
#17Was pleasantly surprised with the list. Agree with all of them. The last point about notebooks has especially been useful for me the past few year. There's just something different about using it to help you think. Most of the time, I don't finish fleshing out an idea on paper. But the act of writing (or drawing) it somehow helps me explore new concepts faster. After that I just continue coding or whatever the next s…
If nothing else I like my notebook because if I've shut everything down for the day, I can still leave a note for myself for tomorrow without having turn anything back on/log back in.
Re: The real “must have” tools for programming
#18Quite a good list, I was expecting something else, again one of those tired UNIX blog posts where only UNIX counts as development environment, instead I got something more rich out of it.
Re: The real “must have” tools for programming
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some people need a notebook. I don't. I've never found extra productivity from jotting things down like that. And over the years people have actually made me feel bad about that "you don't write things down? you should, it helps organise your mind" whatever. Put a pen in my hand and a doodle comes out. I have a good memory and I can usually visualize problems, and when I cannot then I use computer based drawing tools…
Do you have digital notes of some kind? Even just a massive “notes.txt” file? Curious because there’s just so much stuff out there. If I don’t write it down somewhere searchable I’m doomed to repeat the mistake in the future. But I have crappy memory for this kind of stuff.
No. I think I must have a slightly better than usual memory for code and details. I didn't think about it much until a couple of years ago when someone asked for help by phone and I reeled out the file locations and the code for them to enter. They asked if I could just do it and I said no I don't have my laptop and they were somewhat impressed. But I've not asked around about it so I don't really know where that would sit relative to other people.
Re: The real “must have” tools for programming
#20Writing stuff (usually visually) down with a Pen + Paper, also helps me a lot, especially when i try to understand a problem i have.
And afterwards i try to explain the problem to myself.