Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A Tip That Will Help You Learn To Code 10x Faster

bradmilne.tumblr.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 40 posts

Re: A Tip That Will Help You Learn To Code 10x Faster

#31

Post by greenyoda »

jrajav wrote: post #24
isleyaardvark wrote: post #22

This seems like a good way to get 1 year's experience ten times.

For anyone who's curious, this oft-repeated expression originates from the novel Shibumi ( http://goo.gl/gPuyB , fourth line): Do not fall into the error of the artisan who boasts of twenty years experience in his craft while in fact he has had only one year of experience — twenty times.

Shibumi was published in 2005. I first saw the same expression in a software development book published in the 1990s. It's probably some ancient proverb that's as old as craftsmanship itself.

Re: A Tip That Will Help You Learn To Code 10x Faster

#32

Post by SatvikBeri »

I actually find this tip really useful. This is why:

-If I read a programming book, I'm likely to remember a significant portion of what I read. That's because it fits into an overall structure. Even if I can't remember the exact name of a function that does exactly what I want, I know it exists and can find it easily.

-If I read a tip on an article and apply it regularly, I'll remember it, because it gets reinforced.

-If I read something in a blog post or article and don't apply it, I'll forget it almost immediately. Without the structure or repetition it just doesn't stick into my head.

The problem is that it's really easy to get caught in the last category. It feels like I'm learning a lot when I skip from link to link, but the reality is that most of it doesn't stick and ends up being wasted time. Separating out my learning and doing time works much better for me.

Re: A Tip That Will Help You Learn To Code 10x Faster

#33

Post by jrajav »

greenyoda wrote: post #31
jrajav wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For anyone who's curious, this oft-repeated expression originates from the novel Shibumi ( http://goo.gl/gPuyB , fourth line): Do not fall into the error of the artisan who boasts of twenty years experience in his craft while in fact he has had only one year of experience — twenty times.

Shibumi was published in 2005. I first saw the same expression in a software development book published in the 1990s. It's probably some ancient proverb that's as old as craftsmanship itself.

Uh, no, Shibumi was first published in 1979.

Re: A Tip That Will Help You Learn To Code 10x Faster

#35

Post by dmiladinov »

JackMorgan wrote: post #9

This advice is good only for people who naturally dive deep into the details and get lost. What he suggests is what I do as naturally as a fish in water. Skimming the details, finding my answer, and racing off is my greatest skill. But, lately, I have realized _my_ 10x gains come when I bite the bullet and deeply learn a technology. It is against my nature, and takes real effort, but that is where my biggest gains ar…

To sum your comment, and many others on this thread:

Don't let not knowing "simple solutions to simple problems" stop you from completing your next action (fixing the bug, finishing the sprint, launching the MVP, etc.).

Don't let not knowing the fundamentals better stop you from "leveling up", as it were, as a developer.

Re: A Tip That Will Help You Learn To Code 10x Faster

#36

Post by Smudge »

JackMorgan wrote: post #9

This advice is good only for people who naturally dive deep into the details and get lost. What he suggests is what I do as naturally as a fish in water. Skimming the details, finding my answer, and racing off is my greatest skill. But, lately, I have realized _my_ 10x gains come when I bite the bullet and deeply learn a technology. It is against my nature, and takes real effort, but that is where my biggest gains ar…

> Try programming without internet for a few hours.

I've done this a couple times out of necessity (internet goes down, etc). It made me realize how useful a good IDE can be. Googling the API references is essentially a poor man's IntelliSense. Or, maybe, IntelliSense is a poor man's Google, depending on how you look at it.

Re: A Tip That Will Help You Learn To Code 10x Faster

#38

Post by Someone »

"The key to being a good developer is to be able to find your answer as quickly as possible without learning anything else."

I 100% agree. That's why I often spend some extra time to sharpen my 'good solution for my problem' detection skills.

Even reputable sites such as Stack Overflow have plenty of bad answers, and that is even ignoring the fact that an answer may be good in general, but not for my situation.

Site quality also decays because software is changing/improving all the time. That answer to your question may have 700 upvotes, but if its solution has made meanwhile it into the standard library, it really helps if you know that.

Re: A Tip That Will Help You Learn To Code 10x Faster

#39

Post by JackMorgan »

Smudge wrote: post #36
JackMorgan wrote: post #9

This advice is good only for people who naturally dive deep into the details and get lost. What he suggests is what I do as naturally as a fish in water. Skimming the details, finding my answer, and racing off is my greatest skill. But, lately, I have realized _my_ 10x gains come when I bite the bullet and deeply learn a technology. It is against my nature, and takes real effort, but that is where my biggest gains ar…

> Try programming without internet for a few hours. I've done this a couple times out of necessity (internet goes down, etc). It made me realize how useful a good IDE can be. Googling the API references is essentially a poor man's IntelliSense. Or, maybe, IntelliSense is a poor man's Google, depending on how you look at it.

Sure, auto complete tools are great. What I'm talking about is being fast enough that even auto complete can barely keep up, combined with a depth of knowledge that allows you to make the wise strategic choices that cut out huge swaths of time and typing. Like the other day this other developer and I were trying to reorder columns of data and sort them by multiple groupings of aggregates in .NET. We were twenty minutes into what would have been hours of effort before I remembered reading about DataTables, which are in memory databases in .NET. We had our problem solved in a few minutes. No auto complete would have told me that, just careful, deliberate study.

Re: A Tip That Will Help You Learn To Code 10x Faster

#40

Post by greenyoda »

jrajav wrote: post #33
greenyoda wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shibumi was published in 2005. I first saw the same expression in a software development book published in the 1990s. It's probably some ancient proverb that's as old as craftsmanship itself.

Uh, no, Shibumi was first published in 1979.

Sorry, I was misled by the date on Google's "about this book" page. 2005 must be when the digital edition was published.
Post reply on HN