5 ms·

I love it when somebody immediately knows the answer to something seemingly obscure.

by anjc 10y ago

yyhhsj0521 10y ago
He must had a hard time figuring it out when he first encountered the problem..
- _asummers 10y ago
  Or he's written a terminal that had to figure out how to do that functionality and remembered how it worked.
  - jdmichal 10y ago
    According to the comments on TJ's post, this would be correct. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21947452/why-is-printing-b-dramatically-slower-than-printing?noredirect=1&lq=1#comment33290753_21947627 http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21947452/why-is-printing-... > There are some answers that come from hard learned experience. T.J. and I (since we are friends) grew up in the days of the Apple ][ and the zx80/81. There was no built in word wrap back then. So we both ended up writing our own — more than once. And those lessons stick with you, they get burned in to your lizard brain. But if you leaned to code after that, when your environment word wraps everything, or you do it manually prior to runtime, it is harder to run into the issues with word wrap. – JockM
    - jockm 10y ago
      100% I am the guy who wrote that comment. Sometimes there are benefits to getting older ;)
mrb 10y ago
This is a great example of a "10x engineer". Someone less experienced would take 10x or 100x the time to investigate and resolve this problem.
- kbart 10y ago
  No, it just means someone has encountered that particular problem in the past.
- JackFr 10y ago
  The 10X immediately knows the answer. The 100X immediately knows the answer, but asks "That is an interesting observation and I'd really like to know why too. But is writing 1 million characters to the console essential to the problem your solving?"
  - CPLX 10y ago
    Indeed. Then the 1000x engineer explains: "You are confused because you do not understand Tao. Only a fool expects rational behavior from his fellow humans. Why do you expect it from a machine that humans have constructed? Computers simulate determinism; only Tao is perfect. The rules of programming are transitory; only Tao is eternal. Therefore, you must contemplate Tao before you receive Enlightenment." "But how will I know when I have received Enlightenment?" asks the 100x engineer. "Your program will run correctly," replies the 1000x engineer.
    - softawre 10y ago
      Meanwhile, the 10kx engineer sits here on HN, doing nothing while requirements change again and again - waiting to implement the thing when the requirements finally settle.
- stephencanon 10y ago
  It's really an example that we should teach people to use a sampling profiler. anyone can answer this question in a minute or so, no speculation necessary, if they just know what tool to use.
  - LukeShu 10y ago
    Except the insight of the answer is that the bottleneck is in a different program than suspected. Running the suspect program under a profiler wouldn't yield any answers. Sure, anyone can find the answer if they already know where to look.
xeniak 10y ago
Sometimes I think these guys know something obscure, and then post a question about it just to answer it themselves. SO actually allows this, Q and A from the same account. Some people use sock-puppets though.
- junke 10y ago
  Not only is this allowed, it is encouraged. Why would people use sock-puppets, I don't know. It seems that the SO team has special ways to detect voting frauds.
  - nxzero 10y ago
    People use sock puppets to do this because although you're correct that it's with the SO guidelines, it feels a bit off, and not uncommon for it to get pushback from those who either don't agree with the guidelines or are not aware of them. Also, while voting fraud is against the guidelines and actively countered, creating sock puppet accounts is not.
    - junke 10y ago
      > Also, while voting fraud is against the guidelines and actively countered, creating sock puppet accounts is not. You're right. For anyone interested here is the relevant post: http://meta.stackexchange.com/q/57682/297429 http://meta.stackexchange.com/q/57682/297429
      - snowwrestler 10y ago
        Doesn't that say that "Answering your own questions with the other account(s)" is one of the things that a sock puppet account should not be used for?
        junke 10y ago
        Yes, but the parent comment said "creating sock puppet accounts", which is okay because there might be legitimate uses.
p333347 10y ago
I am amused when someone comes up with obscure problems. I am disappointed when that person doesn't brief about the scenario that led them to such a problem.

I love it when somebody immediately knows the answer to something seemingly obscure.

by anjc 10y ago

I love it when somebody immediately knows the answer to something seemingly obscure.

yyhhsj0521 10y ago

He must had a hard time figuring it out when he first encountered the problem..

_asummers 10y ago
Or he's written a terminal that had to figure out how to do that functionality and remembered how it worked.
- jdmichal 10y ago
  According to the comments on TJ's post, this would be correct. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21947452/why-is-printing-b-dramatically-slower-than-printing?noredirect=1&lq=1#comment33290753_21947627 http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21947452/why-is-printing-... > There are some answers that come from hard learned experience. T.J. and I (since we are friends) grew up in the days of the Apple ][ and the zx80/81. There was no built in word wrap back then. So we both ended up writing our own — more than once. And those lessons stick with you, they get burned in to your lizard brain. But if you leaned to code after that, when your environment word wraps everything, or you do it manually prior to runtime, it is harder to run into the issues with word wrap. – JockM
  - jockm 10y ago
    100% I am the guy who wrote that comment. Sometimes there are benefits to getting older ;)

mrb 10y ago

This is a great example of a "10x engineer". Someone less experienced would take 10x or 100x the time to investigate and resolve this problem.

kbart 10y ago
No, it just means someone has encountered that particular problem in the past.
JackFr 10y ago
The 10X immediately knows the answer. The 100X immediately knows the answer, but asks "That is an interesting observation and I'd really like to know why too. But is writing 1 million characters to the console essential to the problem your solving?"
- CPLX 10y ago
  Indeed. Then the 1000x engineer explains: "You are confused because you do not understand Tao. Only a fool expects rational behavior from his fellow humans. Why do you expect it from a machine that humans have constructed? Computers simulate determinism; only Tao is perfect. The rules of programming are transitory; only Tao is eternal. Therefore, you must contemplate Tao before you receive Enlightenment." "But how will I know when I have received Enlightenment?" asks the 100x engineer. "Your program will run correctly," replies the 1000x engineer.
  - softawre 10y ago
    Meanwhile, the 10kx engineer sits here on HN, doing nothing while requirements change again and again - waiting to implement the thing when the requirements finally settle.
stephencanon 10y ago
It's really an example that we should teach people to use a sampling profiler. anyone can answer this question in a minute or so, no speculation necessary, if they just know what tool to use.
- LukeShu 10y ago
  Except the insight of the answer is that the bottleneck is in a different program than suspected. Running the suspect program under a profiler wouldn't yield any answers. Sure, anyone can find the answer if they already know where to look.

xeniak 10y ago

Sometimes I think these guys know something obscure, and then post a question about it just to answer it themselves. SO actually allows this, Q and A from the same account. Some people use sock-puppets though.

junke 10y ago
Not only is this allowed, it is encouraged. Why would people use sock-puppets, I don't know. It seems that the SO team has special ways to detect voting frauds.
- nxzero 10y ago
  People use sock puppets to do this because although you're correct that it's with the SO guidelines, it feels a bit off, and not uncommon for it to get pushback from those who either don't agree with the guidelines or are not aware of them. Also, while voting fraud is against the guidelines and actively countered, creating sock puppet accounts is not.
  - junke 10y ago
    > Also, while voting fraud is against the guidelines and actively countered, creating sock puppet accounts is not. You're right. For anyone interested here is the relevant post: http://meta.stackexchange.com/q/57682/297429 http://meta.stackexchange.com/q/57682/297429
    - snowwrestler 10y ago
      Doesn't that say that "Answering your own questions with the other account(s)" is one of the things that a sock puppet account should not be used for?
      - junke 10y ago
        Yes, but the parent comment said "creating sock puppet accounts", which is okay because there might be legitimate uses.

p333347 10y ago

I am amused when someone comes up with obscure problems. I am disappointed when that person doesn't brief about the scenario that led them to such a problem.