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On Coding, Ego and Attention

josebrowne.com

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Re: On Coding, Ego and Attention

#91

Post by mtalantikite »

moreaccountspls wrote: post #60
mtalantikite wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can't Zen Buddhism your way out of the fact that you're going to spending years and years practicing until your fingers bleed, or until you're completely exhausted, etc. Many Zen Buddhists know how long and hard practice for mastery is. Practicing meditation is in many ways skill acquisition as well, which is why it is called a practice. You’ll of course be spending years and years practicing programming, and t…

> You’ll of course be spending years and years practicing programming You can't just 'of course' this! I mean, you can, but that's the whole point. If you, or anyone reading this enough cares enough about being a great programmer, you wouldn't be on this site in the first place. Which is fine, I enjoy wasting time on here as much as anyone. But the people who are actually really good at programming? They're not readi…

You can certainly work towards a deeper ability without attaching to the outcome or to even use ego-craving to get there.

Re: On Coding, Ego and Attention

#93

Post by nsilvestri »

I needed to read this. Just today I realized today that my ego was distracting me from learning and being effective at my job. I am a new dev, I need to teach myself to take the ego hit and that in the long term it'll pay off more than independently struggling on a problem.

Re: On Coding, Ego and Attention

#94

Post by croh »

collyw wrote: post #46
jwilber wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Programming is certainly the best way to get better at programming. Some other things may help improve your ability to program, but there is no substitute for the act itself.

Nah, I am agreement with the poster that you replied to. Our tech lead is a bit of a diva. He is smart but basically he just programs and doesn't bother with much else. He bangs out code quickly, but it can be buggy and its usually the rest of the team that fix the bugs, keep the infrastructure running, write the tests. He is good at tricky algorithmic stuff. His code is fairly well organised. I don't find his abstra…

Agree absolutely. I think real problem is our interview process. More focus is given on solving tricky questions than overall craft. In day to day tasks, how many times you have to implement those algorithms ? (I am not against knowing algorithms though). Good code is which performs requirement perfectly and MAINTAINABLE.

Python's PEP 20/zen of python is one of the best guide for craft, imo. It works well for individual programmer as well as for teams.

https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0020/

Re: On Coding, Ego and Attention

#95

Post by [deleted] »

abvdasker wrote: post #35

In my experience, the best way to insulate yourself from the pangs of imposter syndrome and unproductive self-doubt is with experience of past successes. Early in my software engineering career I would constantly and painfully wonder if I was actually capable of fixing a certain bug or solving a new or difficult problem. But then after working hard on a solution, 99% of the time it would work out. After going through…

[deleted]

Re: On Coding, Ego and Attention

#96

Post by moreaccountspls »

mtalantikite wrote: post #91
moreaccountspls wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You’ll of course be spending years and years practicing programming You can't just 'of course' this! I mean, you can, but that's the whole point. If you, or anyone reading this enough cares enough about being a great programmer, you wouldn't be on this site in the first place. Which is fine, I enjoy wasting time on here as much as anyone. But the people who are actually really good at programming? They're not readi…

You can certainly work towards a deeper ability without attaching to the outcome or to even use ego-craving to get there.

Your ego drives every action of your existence, so no, you really can't. What you can do is be self aware of that reality.

Re: On Coding, Ego and Attention

#97

Post by moreaccountspls »

mtalantikite wrote: post #86
moreaccountspls wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>it is that ego sabotages your efforts to put in the time Sure, but what I'm saying that that statement is almost meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Is not letting your ego get in the way a necessary part of getting to mastery? Absolutely. But no matter how much you change your thought process, or analyze the problem, you still need to eat the proverbial whale. Think of all the people who've ever played baske…

> After all, part of Zen Budhism is accepting who you are and your limitations. The teaching is that all beings are capable of enlightenment and outlines a path to accomplish that. The concept of "you" is part of the problem and meditation on sunyata can offer insight to that.

Enlightenment isn't a thing that can be accomplished. That's an oxymoron.

Re: On Coding, Ego and Attention

#98

Post by croh »

pistachiopro wrote: post #18

This post did not reach the conclusion I was expecting based on the title. For me, I think I've largely experienced the opposite relationship between ego and my programming productivity. Learning to program as a kid was probably one of the most exciting developments in my life up to that point, and I expect that's true for many people on this forum. I originally attributed this to programming's usefulness, and the ma…

Software developer jobs pay so well, many programmers don't know what to do other than that. I feel need of disengagement with laptop so many times but damn I don't know any other thing to pay bills. Also there is always fear of losing track of new tech and being jobless.

Re: On Coding, Ego and Attention

#99

Post by visarga »

I am not convinced by the article. For one, I don't think beginners mind is necessarily superior to expert mind. After all, why would society value the expert more than the novice? Has anyone actually checked to see if experts don't have an even greater openness towards learning and novelty?

About giving up on projects and how the ego plays into that, I don't think in such black and white - giving up = bad, persevering = good. Sometimes you need to give up in order to find a better approach. There are reasons why this instinct is present in our species (something to do with the exploration exploitation trade-off). We can't paint over it with self help advice.

Comparing yourself to others is bad? Why? It's an evolutionary advantage to learn from the experiences of others. By doing comparisons you can calibrate your values. Competition is a great motivator. Having a row model can be fast way towards improvement. Comparison between peers is like a second order metric, first order metrics relying only on self.

The advice about not comparing yourself to others is useful only in a limited setting - where you devalue your accomplishments and have nothing to gain from it. But when comparison motivates you to improve, then it's actually not bad. Also when comparison prompts you to take action and avoid a crisis you could be spared a lot of suffering. Comparison can act like an alarm. Another function of comparison is to make groups more cohesive - if they form a common culture they can function better - so aligning oneself to the group can be beneficial for all.

Re: On Coding, Ego and Attention

#100

Post by alexashka »

There is a predictable pattern to these types of posts and these types of life experiences.

You have a problem, you discover a potential solution and it seems to be working. You get excited and you try to make sense of it and you want to tell everyone because it is such a game changer! Then some time passes by, the emotions fade and you arrive at a new perspective - that your life hasn't changed that much or if it has, now you have a new set of challenges and a new potential solution will come your way sooner or later.

It never ends, unless you at one point recognize that it never ends and cease wanting to be better and wanting to understand it all so much. It's not that you purposely cease trying or wanting, it's that you relax the wanting, because you know the problems will be there tomorrow and the day after, no matter how much you try.

That's when 'it's the journey, not the destination' finally sinks in and life takes on a new quality :)

For some people, it happens when they are reminded of death and the inevitability of it all, for some when they've burned through their health enough that they can't do it anymore, for others it just occurs to them one day - I can't keep up with this bigger, better, faster, stronger culture and frankly, I don't want to, either.

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