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Re: undefined

#61

I don't think the power to quickly do things like you're describing is a cognitive ability. The more of your job you can move _out_ of the "thinking" part of your brain into the habit part, the more quickly it goes. Being a "regular" software engineer is all about building a large internal collection of idioms that you can reach for to build what you need, not to methodically think through each step.

Being a "regular" software engineer is all about building a large internal collection of idioms that you can reach for to build what you need, not to methodically think through each step.

Are you sure about that? It seems backward to me. Each time you implement something, you should be improving yourself. This means not relying on just doing it the same way you've always done it. It means actively looking for a better solution this time around, which typically means methodically thinking through each step.

Then again, I know people who think personal improvement should happen outside of work hours. shrug

Re: undefined

#62
Not sure if you looked up "sluggish cognitive tempo" on Wikipedia yet. Give that a read. Have you experienced a head injury in your life's? I experienced a traumatic brain injury after being hit by a car in my early 20s. I never returned to my former cognitive pace until I was diagnosed with ADD by a doctor who couldn't say for sure that it was caused by the head injury but who suggested I try a mild stimulant to test the result.

The stimulant did the trick. I got my life back. Talk to your doctor and talk to a psychologist or neuropsychologist.

Re: undefined

#63
Work on your health. Look for any hidden health issues. Getting a proper diagnosis and proper treatment can help you function better. Eat right. Exercise. Improve your sleep hygeine. Address any nutritional deficiencies.

"A sound mind in a sound body."

Re: undefined

#64
post #17
post #10

You may be chronically sleep deprived and not realize it. If that's the case you should try sleeping really consistently for a week and check the difference. Don't use an alarm, just be really disciplined about going to sleep early enough to wake up naturally. No caffeine or other stimulants. The difference between a well rested brain and a sleep deprived one is night and day.

> The difference between a well rested brain and a sleep deprived one is night and day. When I don't get 8-9 hours of sleep, I code exactly the way OP described. Things that normally take an hour, take a full day because I can't focus and miss the most embarrassing, basic stuff.

Agreed. But don't do the comparison anytime in those weeks the US Open is on at Forest Hills, LI, NY. Those weeks the entire country, world (?), suffers insomnia. It's the attorneys in the tennis clubs packing in to watch the tournament, packing that white powder up their snouts to be sharp and quick on the retorts to other attorneys. Not to mention the well heeled fans at the events proper. That's my opinion. Sleepless during the US Open. I don't play tennis and certainly don't watch it. Who knows, maybe the 9/11 terrorist attack was about the two towers representing two tennis players at the nearby USOpen, then ongoing as it does same time every year. Terrorists fed up with the yearly insomnia period.

Re: undefined

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP, do you think you have problems following the logic within the code? Or is it like, i don't understand what the bigger picture is so I can't finish this task?

I think it's more that when faced with a code smell, I get into a mental loop where I evaluate each possible solution I can think of over and over without being able to commit to one. Sort of like a simulated annealing algorithm that never cools down.

Haha, I understand exactly what you mean. I used to be the same, I guess it never really goes away. I had a friend who was really quick, he knew as much as me and probably just as smart, the only difference is that he'd make calls and compromise quicker while I'd just ponder on the implications of each decision. It has a lot to do with out personality types I think. I have since learned to punt stuff and solve the problem I have, not problems I might have. It's good to be aware of the problems you might have in the future but trying to come up with a perfect solution will only lead you to produce nothing at the end of the day and frustrate you, like you have probably noticed. It's easier to fail fast and iterate, you learn from your mistakes. Also TDD helped a lot, Good luck!

Re: undefined

#66
post #27
post #26

I would get assessed by a psychologist if you really think your slow. You might get surprised and just find out your actually not. Or your smart and meticulous (more accurate, but slower), something pretty common in software engineers. Software requires high preciseness, being loose and sloppy quickly gets filtered out. The example you cite sounds like a lack of experience with the library set. The reason it's a 10s…

I'm a lot like OP myself. I take a lot longer than others to get something off the ground, but when I do, it's very well executed, and I understand all the moving parts inside. But then again, I'm obsessive about every small thing.

I concur.

However, to me, this is the most evil curse, especially at uni, where instead of doing an intelligent thing you can just set up a tree of 20 one liner if statements shudder And still get a 100%

Probably it might be like that at work too...

Re: undefined

#67
You just sound like you haven't been doing this a long time. "Fast" devs are either bad devs or they've been doing it a long time and are fast because they've seen a given problem before.

Re: undefined

#68
Honestly, you are meticulous not slow. If I can give any general advice it would be reading and applying some debugging best practices with (strong emphasis on this point) work for you. You don't get clear exceptions? Force highest possible verbosity and debugging level. Something works (breaks) only in specific conditions? Go crazy with unit tests and work on the gathered data.

It worked, and works, for me but served only as an annoyance to some of my co-workers who had a lot more experience with testing and debugging.

It's like with integration during Calculus, people who either know some set of techniques or have some previous experience will look like mathematical prodigies when compared with others. Said others likely tackle this problem for first time or don't see some analogy with previous examples. This is the difference: making correct comparisons and finding similar / known cases. In two years you will meet new developers who will ask you how come you are concluding such wild solutions with blazing speed. They would never even assume that this is where they were supposed to look in the first place. As far as my experience goes, it works for maths, cooking, chess and programming.

Re: undefined

#70
Like other posters here, I think your description does not sound like you are particularly slow. But even if you are, slowness is something that needs to simply be worked on--not despaired about. As my adviser in college used to say: turn your weaknesses into strength.

That may sound ridiculous when it comes to something like being slow to grasp concepts. It is something I have been struggling with as I've taken to studying Calculus almost 15 years later than most people. But I have been greatly encouraged by some of the things Barbara Oakley has to say. Here is a quote from chapter 12 of her book A Mind for Numbers, "Learning to Appreciate Your Talent":

If you are one of those people who can’t hold a lot in mind at once—you lose focus and start daydreaming in lectures, and have to get to someplace quiet to focus so you can use your working memory to its maximum—well, welcome to the clan of the creative. Having a somewhat smaller working memory means you can more easily generalize your learning into new, more creative combinations. Because you’re learning new, more creative combinations. Having a somewhat smaller working memory, which grows from the focusing abilities of the prefrontal cortex, doesn’t lock everything up so tightly, you can more easily get input from other parts of your brain. These other areas, which include the sensory cortex, not only are more in tune with what’s going on in the environment, but also are the source of dreams, not to mention creative ideas. You may have to work harder sometimes (or even much of the time) to understand what’s going on, but once you’ve got something chunked, you can take that chunk and turn it outside in and inside round—putting it through creative paces even you didn’t think you were capable of!

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