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How to use your full brain when writing code
- romaniv 10y agoComputer science has a plethora of studies related to OS process scheduling. All of it is directly relevant to human task management. I've never, ever seen in referenced in any management talks/books/etc.
- calibraxis 10y agoDon Reinertsen mentioned it. At least in a talk, and maybe in his book "The Principles of Product Development Flow". That's only 1 example, but in my personal estimation he's one of the two most effective management theorists I know. Though I wish he were a better explainer. (The other of course is Shanley Kane.)
- calibraxis 10y agoOh, also Joel Spolsky mentions it too: (http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000022.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000022.html) (But it's not worthwhile for me to trawl through the managerial lit, so no doubt there's more examples.)
- tonyarkles 10y agoThank you. I couldn't remember the name of the book or the author. There's a lot of queuing theory in the book, along with the mathematical conclusions (eg 100% utilization = arbitrarily long queue times). Fantastic book, I think I'm going to have to make sure it's on the kindle for some upcoming flights.
- rmaccloy 10y agoIf you're an engineer and have trouble getting past project management methodologies that feel like bullshit (or conversely if you care a lot about them but have trouble convincing your team to) you must read "Principles of Product Development Flow". It's definitely a pretty dry read in parts, but battle through it.
- hashkb 10y agoManagement doesn't care what percentage of your brain you use as long as you're shipping.
- _ao789 10y ago..but you do. Because it helps you to finish tasks quicker
- djohnston 10y agoAt work, I currently have 4-5 different PM's on 4-5 different projects. Each of them has no idea what the others are asking, and I am constantly bombarded with one off tasks via hipchat or in-person requests. The point is not to complain about work, but to agree that management would do well to recognize the importance of process scheduling and queueing, and that a failure to do so is only detrimental to their own objectives.
- JustSomeNobody 10y agoI don't have _that_ many PMs, but when I have multiple people asking me to do simultaneous tasks, I email all of them, asking them to prioritize the list for me. I'm polite about it. And it mostly works out. But I never, ever shy away from doing this.
- vram22 10y agoVery good idea - since it both puts the onus on them, and makes them realize the conflicting demands on your time.
- trhway 10y ago>when I have multiple people asking me to do simultaneous tasks, I email all of them, asking them to prioritize the list for me. exactly, as programmers we should be able to understand and apply basic concurrency management techniques.
- rusanu 10y agoYour manager/team lead should be shielding you from such
- mattmanser 10y agoWhy haven't you got a public list of this that you ask them to add to and argue amongst themselves on the priority? Also, your manager is shit.
- epicaricacy 10y ago>I currently have 4-5 different PM's That sounds like Agile done right! /s
- jasonpeacock 10y agoA book just came out which addresses this: "Agorithms to Live By" (http://algorithmstoliveby.com/ http://algorithmstoliveby.com/)
- vram22 10y agoJust took a quick look at the link. Concept seems interesting. Have you read it, and if so, any opinion on it?
- soberhoff 10y agoI've read it. It was an easy read. No mathematics. Every occurrence of "NP-complete" was replaced with "intractable" and there are tons of anecdotes, many I hadn't heard before. I didn't come away from the book feeling profoundly altered, but I didn't regard it as a waste of time either. If you're looking for something to read on the train, this will do a solid job.
- sn9 10y agoSometimes you encounter a book that covers material you already "know", but seeing it in a sort of coherent narrative structure can be the thing you need to change the way you think about and perceive the world.
- adamb_ 10y agoI enjoyed it. Gives an interesting perspective on the mind and human behavior
- amelius 10y ago> How to use your full brain when writing code I'm curious how the parts of my brain responsible for walking, riding a bicycle or telling jokes could be used when writing code.
- asdfologist 10y agoBy actually reading the article.
- king_magic 10y agoThere is literally nothing in the article that comes remotely close to addressing amelius's point. Which is a pretty fair point, given the lofty title of the article.
- rch 10y agoSometimes I feel like I reallocate my facilities for speech and spatial navigation, to the extent that I need 20 minutes to 'switch gears' before I can function normally again. I was intrigued by the title, and disappointed by the article.
- hacker_9 10y agoMe too! I find my speech center just turns off, and I'm quite unwilling to speak even when spoken too. I expect some people find this zombie mode rude, but you can't please everyone and hey that software ain't gonna write itself!
- amelius 10y agohttps://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121030161416.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121030161416.h...
- JustSomeNobody 10y agoI'm curious why people have to be so darned pedantic. It's not funny nor cute. And it makes it almost impossible to have any sort of enjoyable conversation with a normal person.
- projectramo 10y agoI am not kidding or being sarcastic, but let me add another tip for using your "full brain": aerobic exercise. If you just take a brisk walk, a quick sprint, or a jog, before you code or intermittently, you'll notice a world of difference.
- omginternets 10y agoAgreed. Hell, it doesn't even have to be aerobic. Installing a pull-up bar in my apartment has noticeably improved the quality of my work, as well my own enjoyment of working. Any time I feel a bust of frustration in my gut, or any time my code is compiling, I get up and crank a few (like 5) out. Makes a world of difference.
- visarga 10y agoBy writing one letter at a time, you're not utilizing your "full communication" power. In fact you're using just 1/26 of the power of the alphabet, that comes at 3.84%. So, instead, write with a superposition of all letters at once to utilize 100% of the power of the alphabet, using 100% of the brain.
- mangeletti 10y agoWhat do you mean by "write with a superposition of all letters at once"?
- Joof 10y agoI assume it means he's been playing with quantum algorithms lately.
- visarga 10y agoThe logic that we are using "only a small part" of our brain is caused by the sparse activations. When perceiving something, we need to encode the raw sense data. When encoded, only a small part of the brain is necessary to represent it, thus the misconception that we are only "using" that part. In fact we are using all of it, even the inactive parts. By analogy, when I am writing, I am only using one letter at a time. This does not imply that I am only using 4% of the power of the alphabet, just that it works by sparse combinations. Thus there is no basis to thinking that we could improve if only we could use 100% of our neurons at once.
- quantumhobbit 10y agoI agree with every point. Too bad that, aside from splitting the problem into small tasks, the conditions most software devs work in prevent taking this advice. It is impossible to avoid multitasking in a collaborative open office environment. I can't imagine saying in a standup meeting that I'm just going to work through tutorials and work on memorizing the standard library instead of assigned work.
- _ao789 10y ago...memorising the standard library is to be done at other times to heighten your muscle memory when you need to tap into it during working days..
- mikekchar 10y agoTry it. You might be surprised at the reaction. Let me be a little more specific, though, because it's trickier than I let on. I prefer working on XP style teams, so I'll use XP style vocabulary here, but in my experience what I'm about to say is pretty universal, so feel free to extrapolate. One of the most important things for running a successful project is understanding the attention span of your stake holders (which includes customers, managers, etc). You must deliver "user visible functionality" (i.e. things that your stake holders value) at a regular rate. There is a threshold after which if you fail to deliver something valued by the "customer" the project's chance of failure increases. If you regularly cross that threshold, the chances of success can be almost zero. The actual threshold depends on many factors, but my rule of thumb is 2 weeks. If you don't deliver something of value to the stake holders in 2 weeks, they will get uncomfortable and start thinking about other options. If it happens regularly, then they will constantly be thinking about other options and eventually will chose one of them. (The corollary of my rule of thumb is that the biggest danger to a project is senior management since they are the ones with the power and responsibility to cancel projects that they think are not going to be successful). The more you deliver in that window, the happier stake holders will be, but... if you get into a situation where something you deliver turns out not to be complete/satisfactory/whatever it works against you. So if your stake holder ever utters the words, "But I thought we already did that", then it's like missing 2 windows (well, in my experience, more like 1.5, but I'm splitting hairs). You might be wondering what this has to do with the topic. :-) The problem is that you can't just wander away and study stuff, even if it is going to have a good effect on the project. Similarly, wandering away for a month to gather requirements, or write design, or refactor crappy code, or write a decent build system, or pay back technical debt, or... anyway, it all moves you toward cancellation. This is the real reason waterfall doesn't work IMHO -- stake holders don't have the attention span to deal with the time it takes for things to shake out and so the projects get cancelled. What this means is that every thing you do must be linked to customer-visible value. Furthermore, it limits the amount of time you can spend on every part. You can't wander away for 2 weeks to learn Rails. But you can easily wander away for 1 or 2 days to learn an aspect of Rails that will help you with the story/task that you are currently working on -- so long as that doesn't push you over the threshold. If you start delivering stories with customer-visible value every 2 days, for instance, nobody will care if you are spending half of that time doing tutorials, katas, memorising stuff -- whatever you think is productive. You actions are invisible to the customer and they just don't care. With that in mind, where I always find problems when I see people complaining about this issue is in the work backlog. Usually the stories are organised by technical rather than customer issues. So you'll have a bunch of stories that provide absolutely nothing to the customer and then you will have a story that links it all up gives them a lot -- usually a month or two down the road. The root cause of this is usually because programmers/PMs try to be efficient and not duplicate work. Instead, identify all of the customer-visible value and try to create a story for each one. Make vertical stripes of functionality that you can deliver at a more measured pace. This will require you to do refactoring between each story because your infrastructure will always be incomplete. However, it allows you to deliver value more regularly and causes the "big red eye of management" to focus its attention elsewhere. I've already written more than you are likely to read, so I'll stop here. Just let me encourage you a bit more in saying that you have the ability to change things. It's not easy and it takes time, but you can do it if you work patiently toward your goal. Don't get discouraged!
- erdevs 10y agoPerhaps I missed it and the article already covered these, but a few other major tips that I doubt anyone would disagree with: -Eliminate distractions. Any external stimuli subtract from concentration and "processing power" for your task. Even the possibility of distraction can put your brain on alert for them when they're not present, so best if you can create an environment which is free of distraction generally. This relates not only to your office/work environment, but things like going into DND on your phone and IMs. -Work in large, contiguous time chunks (and then take breaks; see next). For complex tasks, it takes a while to "spin up". To load all the context, to explore possibility branches of solutions, to implement possible solutions and test them. As with distractions, very short work windows break this problem solving time up and require a re-spin-up period. -Take breaks between longer work sessions. Taking breaks-- and in particular moving around while on break-- helps prevent fatigue, sustaining efficacy and productivity for longer windows of the day. Taking a break, especially wherein you change your environment (eg walking outside), can also help invigorate problem-solving. Finally, moving around is healthy for both your body and your mind. I don't think you can make full use of your brain without following all of these as well.
- afarrell 10y agohttps://freedom.to/freedom https://freedom.to/freedom is useful for this if you find yourself checking HN on your phone.
- superuser2 10y agoWhat is it? I can't imagine many on HN are going to register for something just to find out what it is.
- chickenfries 10y agoThis link is better: https://freedom.to/ https://freedom.to/
- istorical 10y agoI really really want this to get an Android client. Right now still using heyfocus.com for Mac + ClearLock for Android. Whichever provider can have a scheduled blacklist/whitelist across Android + Mac first gets my dollars.
- mobiuscog 10y agoI would also add "be interested in what you're writing". If you don't care at all for what you're working on, there's little chance of paying full attention.
- pizza 10y agoWe should all mimic sleeping dolphins, so we could always use our active heimsphere to approach 100% coding time Also, to add some neuron info that the article didn't mention: - place / grid cells would allow you to use your brain more, easily - see the book Moonwalking with Einstein a book recommended by a friend - neural codes are convex- could we use this knowledge somehow? - using your full brain is known as an epileptic seizure, iirc.. - tonic/phasic firing matters a lot as to the effect of neural firing, although I forget as to whether that's a dopamine-only trait..
- keyboardwarrior 10y agoRPN style thinking is also something i feel that helped. Because "thinking" has the inputs on tape/memory already, so its matter of bandwidth and pre-processing. i.e "lets do the integratation" becomes "integration do".
- option_greek 10y agoanecdotal but I don't think I can agree with no multitasking rule. I go nuts if I spend on any task for more than 10-15 minutes. I have to switch to something else and come back. How ever I can keep doing this all day with little exhaustion :)
- ww520 10y agoSomething I found helpful are: having enough sleep, familiar music to drown out distraction to put me in the zone.
- p_zakharov 10y agoThis may be a little anal but analogies between a typical von Neumann architecture computer and any animal brain are pretty limited. The brain is essentially like some next-gen MIMD processor.
- clock_tower 10y agoI remember once hearing it said that the brain is always compared to the most complex machine we know how to build; before von Neumann architectures, the analogy was punch-card looms, and before punch-card looms, it was clockwork. I can't agree more that these analogies should always be taken with a grain of salt...
- p_zakharov 10y agoWell I definitely think that some computational theory of mind is correct. Of course the critical difference between computationalism and clockwork analogies is that we now have formal proof of just how general computation really is. I don't believe that the embodied human mind is capable of more computation than a UTM. That being said, comparing the brain, any animal's brain, to a commercial Intel or AMD processor is very misleading. And I guess it's fitting that I compared the brain to a machine we don't yet know how to build...
- bcheung 10y agoI'm surprised they didn't mention Sapir-Whorf in the vocabulary section. I think the implications for coding and UX are huge.
- mahmoodadv 10y agoIts really good http://greenlahore.blogspot.com/2016/06/green-and-clean-lahore-campaign-by.html http://greenlahore.blogspot.com/2016/06/green-and-clean-laho...
- pg_is_a_butt 10y ago100% chrismm has a case of lady brain. you're all idiots.
- kapv89 10y agoWill share one which helped ease down the "getting in the zone" part for me: Use all 10 of your fingers while typing code
- pvaldes 10y agoWriting code with the 100% of your brain is easy; just bang your head in the keyboard repeatedly as I do.
- wtbob 10y ago> I like to complement this with memorization of the most difficult concepts, especially things I don’t run into very often while reading. You can use Anki for this (or any other spaced-repetition software). Sure enough, I took a look and found this: http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/org-drill.html http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/org-drill.html