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I spend a lot more time thinking than I do typing. The amount of typing is especially reduced when debugging rather than writing new code. In fact, quite a lot

I spend a lot more time thinking than I do typing. The amount of typing is especially reduced when debugging rather than writing new code. In fact, quite a lot of my code starts on paper. When I'm ready to type the code out, it's already "written", I just have to transcribe it.

bthornbury 9y ago
I think realistically the "transcribing" portion takes the bulk of the time. It's not just typing out the code, but the realizations of all the gaps in your mental model and false assumptions always seem to come during this stage.
- potta_coffee 9y ago
  That's what the pen and paper are for. By the time I get to the "transcribing" portion of the work, I usually know how things are going to go together.
topher200 9y ago
It's like he's speaking right to you! Maybe you're not convinced that typing is a core programming discipline. I don't blame you, although I do reserve the right to wonder how you manage to program without using your keyboard. Instead of answering directly, let me share one of my (many) personal foibles with you. At least four times a day, I walk into a room having no idea why I entered that room. I mean no idea whatsoever. It's as if I have somehow been teleported into that room by an alien civilization. Sadly, the truth is much less thrilling. Here's what happened: in the brief time it took for me to get up and move from point A to point B, I have totally forgetten whatever it was that motivated me to get up at all. Oh sure, I'll rack my brain for a bit, trying to remember what I needed to do in that room. Sometimes I remember, sometimes I don't. In the end, I usually end up making multiple trips back and forth, remembering something else I should have done while I was in that room after I've already left it. It's all quite sad. Hopefully your brain has a more efficient task stack than mine. But I don't fault my brain – I fault my body. It can't keep up. If I had arrived faster, I wouldn't have had time to forget. What I'm trying to say is this: speed matters. When you're a fast, efficient typist, you spend less time between thinking that thought and expressing it in code. Which means, if you're me at least, that you might actually get some of your ideas committed to screen before you completely lose your train of thought. Again.
- kraftman 9y ago
  Kind of off topic, but it's not the speed it takes to move between rooms that is the issue, it's the fact they are different rooms. It appears the brain ties thoughts to context and when the context changes we have a weaker tie to the thought: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-walking-through-doorway-makes-you-forget/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-walking-throu...

bthornbury 9y ago

I think realistically the "transcribing" portion takes the bulk of the time. It's not just typing out the code, but the realizations of all the gaps in your mental model and false assumptions always seem to come during this stage.

potta_coffee 9y ago
That's what the pen and paper are for. By the time I get to the "transcribing" portion of the work, I usually know how things are going to go together.

topher200 9y ago

It's like he's speaking right to you! Maybe you're not convinced that typing is a core programming discipline. I don't blame you, although I do reserve the right to wonder how you manage to program without using your keyboard. Instead of answering directly, let me share one of my (many) personal foibles with you. At least four times a day, I walk into a room having no idea why I entered that room. I mean no idea whatsoever. It's as if I have somehow been teleported into that room by an alien civilization. Sadly, the truth is much less thrilling. Here's what happened: in the brief time it took for me to get up and move from point A to point B, I have totally forgetten whatever it was that motivated me to get up at all. Oh sure, I'll rack my brain for a bit, trying to remember what I needed to do in that room. Sometimes I remember, sometimes I don't. In the end, I usually end up making multiple trips back and forth, remembering something else I should have done while I was in that room after I've already left it. It's all quite sad. Hopefully your brain has a more efficient task stack than mine. But I don't fault my brain – I fault my body. It can't keep up. If I had arrived faster, I wouldn't have had time to forget. What I'm trying to say is this: speed matters. When you're a fast, efficient typist, you spend less time between thinking that thought and expressing it in code. Which means, if you're me at least, that you might actually get some of your ideas committed to screen before you completely lose your train of thought. Again.

kraftman 9y ago
Kind of off topic, but it's not the speed it takes to move between rooms that is the issue, it's the fact they are different rooms. It appears the brain ties thoughts to context and when the context changes we have a weaker tie to the thought: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-walking-through-doorway-makes-you-forget/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-walking-throu...