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Speed matters: Why working quickly is more important than it seems (2015)

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Re: Speed matters: Why working quickly is more important than it seems (2015)

#91

Post by really3452 »

crankylinuxuser wrote: post #90
TuringNYC wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel both sorry for the parent and also relate to it. I have several sprints a year that get me so excited about work, that I will head to work after kids’ bedtimes to code — all night — because I can’t stop thinking about some solution. Sometimes I’m so excited I wouldn’t be able to sleep so might as well work.

Why do you do that for a company that would be throw you away if it made economic sense to do so? Why don't you find personal avenues in which to exert that creative energy for you, your family, or society?

You are making a lot of assumptions here. Not all companies are bad or will throw you away. Maybe they are friends or family with the owner? In that case, helping the company bleeds outside of just an economic decision.

Re: Speed matters: Why working quickly is more important than it seems (2015)

#92

Post by redleggedfrog »

ThalesX wrote: post #61

For me, after years producing software, I've set myself up to be able to say no. I disregard urgency when it exists for urgency's sake, coming out of business despair or a gut feeling. I will gladly work for 2 - 3 months on hyper mode, giving away my mental and physical health for a feature that will actually provide business value and for which the business can make a good case for why it's needed yesterday. Working…

ThalesX, your comment here is better than the linked article. Well said.

Looking back over the years of software development I've been involved in (jeez, 27) and remembering the things that were developed with all haste, not one of them, not a single one, met with success. There were some that were developed quickly, usually to meet contractual deadlines, that were good and gave the customer what they needed, but even then, if they could have just waited one more month, I think they would have gotten something better and been more successful.

Re: Speed matters: Why working quickly is more important than it seems (2015)

#93

Post by spineboy »

Speed matters in other fields as well. I'm a former academic surgeon, now in semi private practice.

I would a always tell my residents that to start a medical practice, the 3 "A"s are important, and in this order. Availability, affabilty, and then ability.

People have a problem, and they want it taken care of. If you can be that guy, or company, that's there for them, then you'll get there business in the future, as long as you do a good job.

Re: Speed matters: Why working quickly is more important than it seems (2015)

#94

Post by skohan »

kdelok wrote: post #86
skohan wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a bad analogy for software. One of the unique properties of software, compared to other crafts, is that the material cost of iteration is virtually zero. We should use that to our advantage instead of pretending we're carpenters.

Even using the carpentry analogy, I suspect the point is to avoid ruining something on which a lot of time was spent. The material cost of most raw materials isn't very high, but ruining something you've already spent hours crafting is extremely costly. The other thing to bear in mind is that there is always more work to be done than time to do it. You have to factor in opportunity cost. As many other commenters have…

> The material cost of most raw materials isn't very high, but ruining something you've already spent hours crafting is extremely costly.

Thanks to version-control software it's also incredibly cheap to experiment freely with an existing code-base in a completely non-destructive fashion. I see no reason to treat existing code as fragile or precious.

Re: Speed matters: Why working quickly is more important than it seems (2015)

#95

Post by bluntfang »

fromthestart wrote: post #84
bluntfang wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Happy to be a slave as long as it makes me feel good.

You're willingly choosing to work on an interesting problem that you otherwise would not have access to, and, let's be real, our compensation and autonomy as developers is far from that of servitude. Plus you can quit any time. Slavery here really hyperbolic. We're talking about hard work that is both interesting and rewarding.

>We're talking about hard work that is both interesting and rewarding.

Your hard work is way more rewarding to your masters than to you, though.

Re: Speed matters: Why working quickly is more important than it seems (2015)

#96

Post by tehlike »

alimbada wrote: post #26

Work fast, don't think things through, make mistakes, pay for your haste by spending more time fixing your mistakes than you would have had you thought things through.

Sounds nice on paper. Reality is, you figure things as you go along. Plan for 6 months, and you will see you have 6 months of work.... Get to action first, and you'll have maube 6, maybe 7... Anyways...

Re: Speed matters: Why working quickly is more important than it seems (2015)

#97

Post by crankylinuxuser »

really3452 wrote: post #91
crankylinuxuser wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you do that for a company that would be throw you away if it made economic sense to do so? Why don't you find personal avenues in which to exert that creative energy for you, your family, or society?

You are making a lot of assumptions here. Not all companies are bad or will throw you away. Maybe they are friends or family with the owner? In that case, helping the company bleeds outside of just an economic decision.

I didn't use the term "bad". I said it was based in economics.

It's called a work/life balance. Work, and the related money are a means to being able to live in this society. And how we choose to use the money and power, is how we affect society. But running to work after everyone else "goes to sleep" doesn't appear as a healthy relationship.

And I know of nobody who said when they got old, "I wish I spent more time at work".

Re: Speed matters: Why working quickly is more important than it seems (2015)

#98

Post by beat »

andrewstuart wrote: post #21

That's why the thing about "premature optimisation is the root of all evil" is mistaken and wrong in these modern times and yet many people still quote it and take it to heart and as a result don't prioritise speed when building software. "premature optimisation is the root of all evil" is a saying that came from 1974 when computers were slower, languages were less effective and development processes immature. Today…

Premature optimization is as much a problem today as it was in 1974.

When you build a framework to support a feature you decide to never implement, that's premature optimization.

I'm not concerned with optimizing code, generally. I'm concerned with optimizing developers. Don't waste time on unnecessary work.

Re: Speed matters: Why working quickly is more important than it seems (2015)

#99

Post by beat »

skohan wrote: post #42
lnsru wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a different experience. I did lots of well thought work, that after management decision ended in the thrash. I prefer “working quickly” now, if it doesn’t end in the thrash, I can fix it later.

Yeah the farther I have gotten in my career, the more I ascribe to a disposable code philosophy. Of course it doesn't mean that it's a balance, and there's a time and a place for structure and thinking about design, but that is almost always done better when you have a working prototype than when you're starting something from scratch.

If your code doesn't kinda suck, you're putting too much effort into the code and not enough effort into the problem. It's weird, but important to learn.

Re: Speed matters: Why working quickly is more important than it seems (2015)

#100

Post by tictoc »

bluntfang wrote: post #95
fromthestart wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're willingly choosing to work on an interesting problem that you otherwise would not have access to, and, let's be real, our compensation and autonomy as developers is far from that of servitude. Plus you can quit any time. Slavery here really hyperbolic. We're talking about hard work that is both interesting and rewarding.

>We're talking about hard work that is both interesting and rewarding. Your hard work is way more rewarding to your masters than to you, though.

We're all slaves man.
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