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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

#341

Post by gameman144 »

begueradj wrote: post #326
dpifke wrote: post #283

There's a quote I learned when doing theatre, which I've seen attributed to either the stage magician Doug Henning or possibly Stanislavski, describing the process of art as taking something that's difficult and making it habit , then taking something that's habitual and making it easy , and then taking something that's easy and making it beautiful . For example, as an actor, you learn your lines by rote (they become…

That quote is meaningful. In a similar context, Bruce Lee said about martial arts that "martial" is to discover the dangerous animal within us, and the "art" is to be able to tame that animal.

> the "art" is to be able to mate that animal.

I'm assuming (hoping?) that this was supposed to be "tame"? If not, I've got some questions about Bruce Lee.

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

#342

Post by bigstrat2003 »

JohnMakin wrote: post #276

This just sounds like perfectionism. I believe it is a curse, because I hate working with teammates like this. They'll spin their wheels solving some insane problem no one asked them to do because it's "better" while ignoring the larger scope and goals of the project. I've tried to coach people out of this mindset, because I used to have it very early in my career, til I realized the sheer impracticality of it. I use…

Like most things in life, there's a balance to be struck. If you always accept "good enough" and move on, things will be low-key crappy forever and never get to the point where they are actually good. If you never accept "good enough" and move on, you will never get anything useful done because you're going to always find some "one last thing" to polish. The best path is to pursue excellence when you can, but accept that sometimes you have to let things go.

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

#343

Post by bigstrat2003 »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #48
EZ-E wrote: post #19

There is the curse of knowing how, and maybe more importantly there is the curse of other people knowing you know how.

Family members asking you to fix their printers.

Depends on the family member. My parents? They fed and clothed me for a couple of decades (not to mention literally wiped my ass for years). I owe them big time and I'll do basically anything that isn't immoral for them. My cousins? I like them and will try to help them, but I'm not going to bend over backwards either.

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

#344

Post by alganet »

A more verbose description of the practice known as "yak shaving" or "letting the perfect get in the way of good". More storytelly, emotional.

It's popular. It appeals to some profiles: The leader who doesn't understand why the worker is taking so long. The worker who doesn't understand why the coworker is redoing his stuff.

If you let a popular saying guide your life, then why live at all? You got to experience those things first hand to understand.

If you never went through the process of trying to make something better, you will never understand the cost.

That's why managers who say this kind of stuff are often despised. They demonstrate to know the sayings but not the experience of living through it. When they do, they are respected.

That is also why the product manager and the technical lead are often two distinct roles. The product manager can't make those calls, it only cares about whether the final product matches expectations. The technical lead can make those calls about technical investment cost, but no calls about the project direction. It keeps a good social dynamic that prevents automatic popular sayings and "I heard that..." stuff to override human behavior.

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

#345

Post by bigstrat2003 »

Aachen wrote: post #262

> > You have power over your mind—not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength. > But programming lures us into believing we can control the outside events. That is where the suffering begins. Isn't it the opposite? We're not surprised if someone who grew up amidst criminals also does crime. I'm not sure that I can choose whether to feel attracted to men instead of women. I can't control my mind, but…

[dead]

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

#346

Post by Brian_K_White »

pmarreck wrote: post #159

Oh wow. This hits hard in the feels. Here's my personal submission for "UI problem that has existed for years on touch interfaces, plus a possible solution, but at this point I'm just shouting into the void": https://medium.com/@pmarreck/the-most-annoying-ui-problem-r3... In short, an interface should not be interactable until a few milliseconds after it has finished (re)rendering, or especially, while it is still in…

I fkn hate that too.

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

#347

Post by matheusmoreira »

JohnMakin wrote: post #276

This just sounds like perfectionism. I believe it is a curse, because I hate working with teammates like this. They'll spin their wheels solving some insane problem no one asked them to do because it's "better" while ignoring the larger scope and goals of the project. I've tried to coach people out of this mindset, because I used to have it very early in my career, til I realized the sheer impracticality of it. I use…

> I hate working with teammates like this.

> They'll spin their wheels solving some insane problem no one asked them to do because it's "better" while ignoring the larger scope and goals of the project.

> But why? This is "good enough," and IME, if you sit on things like this long enough, eventually someone else comes along and does it.

Can't think of a bigger reason to avoid volunteer work on free and open source software than what you just said. Being a "wheel spinner" who cares too much about stuff is foolishness. People hate you and simultaneously take you for granted.

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

#348

Post by brulard »

aleph_minus_one wrote: post #142
piva00 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or just have another hobby not involving programming. I got into this from being my main hobby as a kid, the passion thing I did when free time was available, I learnt a lot (enough to build it into a career), I had lots of fun but that time is gone. My free time is to be spent on other things, I get paid to fix issues and that pays my bills, I don't want nor need to be thinking about these issues outside of paid hou…

> Or just have another hobby not involving programming. This can actually make things (much) worse: Since you have now another topic you are insanely passionate about, you see a lot of additional things in the world that are broken and need fixing (though of course typically not via programming). Thus, while having a very different additionally hobby (not or barely involving programming) clearly broadens your horizon…

I agree with this. My hobbies tend to completely take over my thoughts and then it is difficult to switch to work context. It's much simpler for me if my hobby overlaps with my day job. If I get better in my hobby, that helps at job and vice versa.

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

#349

Post by dunham »

riggsdk wrote: post #219
crazygringo wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, 1,000%. The one I don't quite know how to solve is when I'm tapping a device to connect to -- whether a WiFi router or an AirPlay speaker or whatever -- and I swear to god, half the time my intended device slides out from under me a newly discovered device enters above and pushes it down. Or sometimes devices disappear and pull it up. Maybe it's because I live in an apartment building with lots of devices. I've…

To me the BIGGEST annoyance is the iOS “End call” button. Just as I’m about to tap it, the other person ends the call and what I’m actually tapping is some other person on my call list that it then immediately calls. Even if I end the call quickly they often call back confused “You called, what did you want?” Apple: PLEASE add a delay to touch input after the call screen closes.

Confirmation before calling would be nice. I've accidentally made calls when trying to get more information about a missed call. (I've also had Siri pocket dial, but I e got that disabled now.)

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

#350

Post by Suppafly »

shayanbahal wrote: post #271

So... it's not just me that see the world as a collection of broken tech/tools that I know how to fix but won't have the capacity to do everything myself and it feels frustrating...! I really liked framing it as "Technical Capability as a Moral Weight"

> I really liked framing it as "Technical Capability as a Moral Weight"

I think learned people have this sort of feeling of moral weight about a lot of things, it's why they're less happy than uneducated people.

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