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The curse of knowing how, or; fixing everything

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Re: The curse of knowing how, or; fixing everything

#121

Post by jaapz »

PixelForg wrote: post #98
lelanthran wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have many ideas that I want to build, but I'd have to learn new languages, Why? Why, specifically, do you "have to learn new languages" ? So, sure, I can see that, for some product, you might need to learn a new tech (say ... some specific AWS/GCP/Azure service), or perhaps a new configuration language (YAML, TOML, whatever). And, sure, for some ideas (for example a mobile phone app) you're forced into that speci…

> There is nothing stopping you from implementing your idea in (for example) Python. Or Javascript. Or Java, C#, C++, etc Except there is, my brain :), that's one of the constraints I'm talking about, I'm a frontend web dev and I only know JS/TS, and like some frontend web devs, I'm enamored by Rust because it seems so different. I already use JS/TS at work so I want to use something else for my personal projects. So…

I personally try to follow the method of "make it work, then make it nice". You build something that works, it does what you need it to do. After that, you probably already know where the code rubs you the wrong way, so you know where to look to improve and learn.

Re: The curse of knowing how, or; fixing everything

#122

Post by d4rkn0d3z »

rocqua wrote: post #30
d4rkn0d3z wrote: post #24

I think about this from the perpective of change management. Every defect I hope to fix entails a change, which has a certain probability of creating another irksome deficiency or incompatibility. When building complex systems I try to design them with the end state, that you describe very well, in mind. Each time you set about to make a single change ask what is the probability (p) that this change results in anothe…

The N systems case equation has to be wrong. I think you need either 1/(1-p)^n or 1/(1-p^n)

I think it says 1/(1-np).

Re: The curse of knowing how, or; fixing everything

#124

Post by d4rkn0d3z »

d4rkn0d3z wrote: post #122
rocqua wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The N systems case equation has to be wrong. I think you need either 1/(1-p)^n or 1/(1-p^n)

I think it says 1/(1-np).

It is easy to see this by forming the geometric series and rearranging terms, the standard Euler trick.

Re: The curse of knowing how, or; fixing everything

#125

Post by d4rkn0d3z »

kmanraj wrote: post #56
TeMPOraL wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does this help explain why any simple household activity has a frustrating ~50% chance of turning into a string of dependencies and dependents that make you spend 10x the time you expected on it all? E.g. you figure it'll take a minute to take the trash out and wash your hands. But on the way you discover you run out of trash bags, and while washing your hands you run out of soap, then as you pick the refill bottle f…

What you've described is called "yak shaving", which is a series of neverending tasks that must be completed in order to complete the original task. It's apty named since shaving a hairy yak is a neverending task.

It is remarkable how small p has to be for change to be cost effective.

Re: The curse of knowing how, or; fixing everything

#126

Post by d4rkn0d3z »

arkey wrote: post #84
TeMPOraL wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. I know the name (though it took me longer than I want to admit to connect the term with situations outside programming!) - what I now seek to know is, how to minimize it in personal life. Letting go is probably most people's answer - nothing bad will happen if I do all the dependent tasks (cleanup, restocking things that just run out) later in the day - but I have difficulty getting them out of my head, they k…

> how to minimize it in personal life. Structure, order, habits.

Arrange things so they are easy to change.

Re: The curse of knowing how, or; fixing everything

#127

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

PixelForg wrote: post #105
maxbond wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like to say programming is about knowing which rabbit holes to plunge down and which to step over. There's too much to know to go depth-first down every rabbit hole. Go breadth first and accept gaps in your knowledge - everyone has them. If something never comes up and never causes an issue you need to look into, and the project gets done, it doesn't matter. There's always an improvement that could have been made,…

Thank you for your comment, especially for this > I've written a lot of Rust. I've read less than half of the Rust book. Just knowing that there's someone out there who has worked like this or has been in the same situation gives me enough confidence to go through it!(the just write code part) I've gone through so many resources (including the book) and I never managed to finish any of them. But I think now I need to…

I've -literally- been writing Swift, every day, seven days a week, 52.4 weeks a year, since June 2, 2014 (the day it was announced), yet, I still have huge gaps in my knowledge of the language.

I speak it without an accent, but not at Ph.D level.

As to home projects, that's pretty much all I do, these days, ever since I "retired"*, in 2017.

I'm quite good at what I do, and generally achieve every goal that I set, but, since I'm forced to work alone, the scope needs to be kept humble. I used to work as part of a worldwide team, doing some pretty interesting stuff, on a much larger scale.

But what's important to me, is that I do a good job on whatever I do. Everything I write, I ship, support, and document, even if it isn't that impressive. The bringing a project to completion, is a big part of the joy that I get from the work.

* Was basically forced into it

Re: The curse of knowing how, or; fixing everything

#128

Post by 1dom »

throwanem wrote: post #18
maephisto666 wrote: post #10

Amazing piece of text. Honestly, I saw myself in everything you wrote. The struggle, the attempt to write a single line of code to make it perfect, durable, etc. it never works at the first try...but man the joy of having the control over fixing things... And I also relate with the personal chaos that maybe we tend to fix by fixing our software... I see a lot of this "unfinished" behaviour with other things in my lif…

What would it mean to be finished with life? Where are you going in such an all-fired hurry?

Trying to get to the world that all the people unlike us live: a world where a brain can power down for a bit because everything is fine for now.

Re: The curse of knowing how, or; fixing everything

#129

Post by rcfox »

speedupmate wrote: post #119
PixelForg wrote: post #52

Hopefully the future me is able to relate to this, because I really feel like I'm in a rut when it comes to working on personal projects. I have many ideas that I want to build, but I'd have to learn new languages, yet I just can't sit and go through the documentation every day like I should. Still haven't finished the rust book. The other way is start building already, and if you come across a block, then learn abou…

Don't code, validate your ideas first (to first 1000 paying customers if monetization motivates) and 99% is not even worth to be started with, life is just too short for that. With AI there's nothing to be ashamed of as it is "what you can dream of, you can get today". There's not much left in programming in most of the projects (that are just repeated code, output, what not over and over) after AI , tools are just t…

How do you validate an idea with 1000 paying customers if you don't have a product?
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