> Do you practice specific skills with repetition and intent? This troubles me a bit for coding, because: There need be no real danger of it ever becoming a d

> Do you practice specific skills with repetition and intent? This troubles me a bit for coding, because: There need be no real danger of it ever becoming a drudge, for any processes that are quite mechanical may be turned over to the machine itself - Turing http://libreamoi.com/index.php/why-is-programming-repetitive-was-turing-wrong/ http://libreamoi.com/index.php/why-is-programming-repetitive... -- However... there surely are skills in this process itself. What are they, and can they be practiced? Concrete example: if you keep repeating code, you could (variously) write a function for it; a framework for it; a language macro; use an IDE that automates it; write a vim/emacs macro; etc So perhaps one specific skill is to learn how to automate things with a concrete tool, and practice automating tasks (eg. writing a few vim macros as practice, to learn the syntax, API, pitfalls, conventions etc). ( EDIT: or, more generally, practice using your tools ) Deeper skills are recognizing repetition (and regularity in general), defining it clearly enough to know what an automation would need to do; and know how to verify that you're correct. Implementing it is a final step. Another skill is in assessing whether such precise analysis is worth it, given insufficient data to 100% nail the task; that the task may change (esp with new data); and of course that to estimate how much effort is involved in doing it "properly", verses a "good enough" solution, verses not automating at all. But how does one practice those tasks with "repetition and intent"? They aren't like piano scales - each problem is unique and unknown. hmmm.