Don't Assume It's Difficult Until It Is
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Don't Assume It's Difficult Until It Is
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Re: Don't Assume It's Difficult Until It Is
#2Good lesson to learn =/
Re: Don't Assume It's Difficult Until It Is
#3I feel like this is good advice but presents only one side of the coin. Underestimating how difficult something is, is exactly what leads to ''planning fallacy''. I would rather err on the side of caution and overestimate how difficult something is
Re: Don't Assume It's Difficult Until It Is
#4The first part resonate a lot with me. I wanted to learn Russian (because why not ?), I intuitively thought the Cyrillic alphabet would be the hardest part of all, like it's another alphabet and you can't read anything right ? Sounds really difficult...
Actually it's the easiest part of the language because it's 99% phonetic with some few exceptions, the whole alphabet is in reality quite small and it was actually easier to learn how to read Russian than reading English. The hard part is actually more the grammar (with those cases) and the vocabulary more than the reading itself. I still have a very basic level but the alphabet part took like only 4 hours maybe to remember them all.
But it's also the same when coding, the hard parts are not always where I expect them to be.
Re: Don't Assume It's Difficult Until It Is
#5I feel like this is good advice but presents only one side of the coin. Underestimating how difficult something is, is exactly what leads to ''planning fallacy''. I would rather err on the side of caution and overestimate how difficult something is
My take-away was - never estimate confidently without knowing anything about the task. Because the initial assumptions might be very incorrect. Invest maybe 2-5% of the time to start doing something (ie begin learning Korean to realize that it's a phonetic language, and reading is easy within just 1 day). This will allow you to come up with the right estimate. Thoughts?
Re: Don't Assume It's Difficult Until It Is
#6I feel like this is good advice but presents only one side of the coin. Underestimating how difficult something is, is exactly what leads to ''planning fallacy''. I would rather err on the side of caution and overestimate how difficult something is
The most important time to apply the advice from the article is after you have decided a project is worth your time and before you start planning in earnest.
The examples of difficult subject matter the author gives (particularly math) are so intimidating to some people that they miss out on a lot of great stuff because they conclude "I could never do that".
I don't think the author wants people to make poor time estimates and suffer budget overruns.
To me, the message of the article reads: "If you think something looks worthwhile but difficult, take a stab anyway. Often the hairiest, prickliest parts of the undertaking from an outsider's perspective aren't that tough at all once you're in the thick of it"
I 100% agree with you about how valuable conservatism is when you're planning, but I think the author's encouragement is intended for people who haven't even considered planning yet.
Re: Don't Assume It's Difficult Until It Is
#7The first part resonate a lot with me. I wanted to learn Russian (because why not ?), I intuitively thought the Cyrillic alphabet would be the hardest part of all, like it's another alphabet and you can't read anything right ? Sounds really difficult... Actually it's the easiest part of the language because it's 99% phonetic with some few exceptions, the whole alphabet is in reality quite small and it was actually ea…
> But it's also the same when coding, the hard parts are not always where I expect them to be.
As you may know, this also applies to optimizing code. The 'hot' parts of the code are very often things that you don't expect.
Re: Don't Assume It's Difficult Until It Is
#8This is honestly how I felt about shaving with a straight razor. Everyone I spoke to about it was like "you're crazy! you'll cut yourself. At the very least use a safety razor to warm up to something like that." I had a gift card to Art of Shaving, and bought a shavette.
Two weeks in, I haven't cut myself once, and I shave faster and better than I ever have.
Re: Don't Assume It's Difficult Until It Is
#9[deleted]
Re: Don't Assume It's Difficult Until It Is
#10This reminds me of babies. A lot of people assume that changing diapers or sleep deprivation is the hard part of having a baby. For me, though, the hard part is actually just that babies are kind of boring, and the boringness of having to watch them constantly grinds you down.
That definitely wasn't what I was expecting to be hard when considering whether to have a baby.
(Fortunately they get more interesting over time.)