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On Coding, Ego and Attention

josebrowne.com

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Re: On Coding, Ego and Attention

#101

Post by croh »

moreaccountspls wrote: post #60
mtalantikite wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can't Zen Buddhism your way out of the fact that you're going to spending years and years practicing until your fingers bleed, or until you're completely exhausted, etc. Many Zen Buddhists know how long and hard practice for mastery is. Practicing meditation is in many ways skill acquisition as well, which is why it is called a practice. You’ll of course be spending years and years practicing programming, and t…

> You’ll of course be spending years and years practicing programming You can't just 'of course' this! I mean, you can, but that's the whole point. If you, or anyone reading this enough cares enough about being a great programmer, you wouldn't be on this site in the first place. Which is fine, I enjoy wasting time on here as much as anyone. But the people who are actually really good at programming? They're not readi…

wow ! well said ! You always doing what you REALLY want for that moment. period.

Re: On Coding, Ego and Attention

#104

Post by zoomablemind »

abvdasker wrote: post #35

In my experience, the best way to insulate yourself from the pangs of imposter syndrome and unproductive self-doubt is with experience of past successes. Early in my software engineering career I would constantly and painfully wonder if I was actually capable of fixing a certain bug or solving a new or difficult problem. But then after working hard on a solution, 99% of the time it would work out. After going through…

Self-doubt is just as human as fear, anxiety, or loneliness. It helps when there's some social environment that helps counteract these bouts. By the same token, if the existing environment works to enforce these demotivating feelings, then one needs to acknowledge that it maybe "them", not you, and either build some mental defences or just move on.

Everyone one on the team should be allowed to make mistakes or take bad choices. Juniors, seniors, managers... we are all people, we're all engineers, we're a team! Cult of perfection is limiting to everyone. The manager's job is to recognize everyone's contribution, no matter how small.

Too often, the teams project a higher bar than is actually reachable. Sure it will lead to sense of inadequacy, for absolutely baseless reasons.

Re: On Coding, Ego and Attention

#105

Post by ericmcer »

The part about problems being either fun challenges or a nightmare really resonated with me. That's why pair programming is so important in my opinion, if you work too long in a silo the magic, fun, craft whatever of programming fades away. Just watching a coworker code or talking through problems with one can bring back that spirit of fun challenges though. Engineer morale is super important.

Re: On Coding, Ego and Attention

#106

Post by post_below »

halfcreative wrote: post #14

I feel like for me, reading and writing articles like this are a major source of distractions. I often find myself reading articles like this, lessons of self-improvement and tips of motivation and ways to be a better programmer, instead of doing what actually makes me a better programmer (actually programming). To extend upon the article, I feel like one of the easiest distractions from self improvement is constantl…

It's ironic that the one of the best forms of self improvement is to get over yourself, while the act of self improvement is often entirely self focused.

I think, though, that the author makes a really valuable core point: Most challenges are hard not because of the subject but because of our approach and perspectives. I can't think of anything important in life that doesn't benefit from the exploration of metacognition.

Re: On Coding, Ego and Attention

#107

Post by colordrops »

camgunz wrote: post #66

I get and agree with what the author is saying here, but I also think a big part of this is that in software engineering, so much of what we do is ephemeral. If you're a carpenter you'll know if you're good or not. You'll be able to do stuff like frame a house, replace a door, etc. And then when someone asks you how long it will take to frame a house, how much it will cost, what supplies/staff you need and so on, you…

The differences between carpentry and software engineering is that the problem space in carpentry is much smaller and pretty much static over time. It's rare for carpentry tools to get an order of magnitude more powerful over the course of a decade, and for 100 people to work on the same carpentry project.

Re: On Coding, Ego and Attention

#108

Post by mlthoughts2018 »

the_af wrote: post #62
mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But then if there’s no information, zero times 50 is still zero.

I'm not sure I agree, because the situation is in my opinion not symmetrical. Work without reading about it: might work, and often does. Reading about it without doing the work: way less useful.

My view is the opposite, basically the adage “measure twice, cut once.”

Work without research often is actively harmful in addition to failing and wasting time & resources. Research at least improves knowledge while not wasting other resources besides time.

Re: On Coding, Ego and Attention

#109

Post by the_af »

mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #108
the_af wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure I agree, because the situation is in my opinion not symmetrical. Work without reading about it: might work, and often does. Reading about it without doing the work: way less useful.

My view is the opposite, basically the adage “measure twice, cut once.” Work without research often is actively harmful in addition to failing and wasting time & resources. Research at least improves knowledge while not wasting other resources besides time.

In science, engineering and coding, I agree!

However, I felt the context of this conversation was self-improvement though. In this particular context, it's easier to get things done without reading any motivational books/articles (in fact, most people get things done without reading about how to self motivate), and the contrary -- reading self-improvement articles -- doesn't mean anything if you don't do the actual work.

Let me quote the initial post of this subthread, which is the sentiment I agree with:

> "The thing about working on yourself is that it’s actually work. Reading an article, or a book on behaviour, self-improvement and what else doesn’t actually change you any more than reading Harry Potter does."

Re: On Coding, Ego and Attention

#110

Post by duderific »

nsilvestri wrote: post #93

I needed to read this. Just today I realized today that my ego was distracting me from learning and being effective at my job. I am a new dev, I need to teach myself to take the ego hit and that in the long term it'll pay off more than independently struggling on a problem.

I'm pretty senior (over 10 years), and I see this a lot with my younger colleagues. They will struggle for hours and hours before reaching out for help, which is obviously counterproductive.

I try to counter this by reaching out myself when I need help, which is pretty regularly. I'm hoping my younger colleagues will see that even the old fart needs help sometimes and isn't afraid to admit that he doesn't know something.

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