7 ms·

So you want to be a wizard

282 points by swsieber 8y ago

jimhefferon 8y ago
Cool.
enz 8y ago
This is one of my favorite jvns post, with How to teach yourself hard things (https://jvns.ca/blog/2018/09/01/learning-skills-you-can-practice/ https://jvns.ca/blog/2018/09/01/learning-skills-you-can-prac...). Very inspiring.
- Buttons840 8y ago
  Note: How to teach yourself hard things is more recent than So you want to be a wizard. (Just mentioning this because it gives some context as to how they're related.) So you want to be a wizard was turned into a "Zine": https://jvns.ca/blog/2017/12/01/new-zine--so-you-want-to-be-a-wizard/ https://jvns.ca/blog/2017/12/01/new-zine--so-you-want-to-be-...
  - codazoda 8y ago
    I absolutely love her zines and she's inspired me to create my own. My latest series try's to teach programming to beginners by creating art. It's like the type-in books and magazines I grew up with. https://gumroad.com/l/splashofcode https://gumroad.com/l/splashofcode
peterwwillis 8y ago
I get that these posts are intentionally written to make it look like a 12 year old wrote them, to give you the idea that it's not too challenging to understand. But it's a bit of a false premise: children can often pick up new concepts faster than adults. In addition, you're not going to express the idea better by putting in exclamation marks, hearts and stars, but you might turn off people who aren't 12. I'm sure Julia is a wonderful engineer, but I just find this writing style grating and I give up reading them. (I have the same reaction to lots of memes splitting up posts) That said, it's her blog, she should write them however she wants to.
- CJefferson 8y ago
  Or, there are a whole bunch of people, children and adults alike, who love hearts and stars. There are plenty of articles written as long paragraphs of black and white prose if you want them. I personally love some colour and brightness wherever I find it. I should start a blog on advanced computational mathematics, with kittens and memes.
  - Ibethewalrus 8y ago
    There’s a video about copyright and fair use made entirely of Disney’s movie clips, using dialogue from the movies
- muglug 8y ago
  Disclaimer: I’ve never met Julia, but have attended one of her talks in person. I feel the exact opposite - there’s far too much in CS that’s unnecessarily obfuscated. Sometimes the obfuscation makes the author/presenter seem smart, but it’s incredibly tiresome and reduces the audience. Julia’s talks are the exact opposite - they’re well-thought-out, with the clear intent to help people understand things, not burnish her (v. impressive) credentials.
  - SomethingOrNot 8y ago
    Everyone who writes things like this (and talks etc.) are trying to burnish their reputation. The latest edition of false modesty doesn’t change that.
- tptacek 8y ago
  I never once got the impression that Julia was dumbing her presentation down to a juvenile level to make it more accessible. Rather, the impression I get is that Julia is as enthusiastic about this stuff as anyone has ever been about anything, and that she has no pretense of having known any of it last week, nor does she care if you did. It's pretty charming and unique combination (it's rare enough that when status-conscious adults come across it, it reads juvenile!) and is my favorite thing about the way she writes and presents. When she writes about stuff, she doesn't have to judge each element she's discussing for whether it's interesting or worth calling out; it's all interesting. That's a good way to avoid missing interesting observations, I think.
spudlyo 8y ago
Thank you Julia for dropping knowledge and sharing your infectious enthusiasm for systems engineering. I hope your work inspires others who have walked the path of the systems wizard to generously publicly share their experience and knowledge with others.
dougdonohoe 8y ago
This is some really great stuff. One of my favorite parts of working in software/computers is "figuring stuff out". My brain always nags "there has to be a reason for this" ... and doesn't let go until I really understand what that reason is. That drive to understand the why (and not "magic") has led me to understand things like JVM garbage collection, ntp (network time protocol), HTTP, vector graphics, and on and on. Great stuff!
thaumaturgy 8y ago
The most valuable part of this talk has got to be her attitude (not to diminish the rest of it, which is great too). After you've been around the block a few times, and tried to learn all the things, and been responsible for trying to un-break a lot of the things, and the things that need to be un-broken start to look like an endless trickle, and then -- as word gets out that you can fix broken things -- starts to look like a Firehose of Infinite Dumping, then your attitude can start to take a hit. Because ultimately you want to start making things better, not just dealing with other people's mistakes all the time, and endlessly chasing mistakes prevents you from making things better, and then you start to see common causes behind a lot of the mistakes and you think, if people would just fix those, I'd like my job a lot more. And that attitude is self-defeating. It leads to unhappiness and unfulfillment and procrastination and mistakes of your own and, finally, resentment. Fostering an attitude like hers is a great antidote for all that, and the longer you can hold on to a curious and positive attitude, the longer you'll be happy to learn about new things and new ways of fixing things.
- spudlyo 8y ago
  This may be one reason why the BOFH stereotype exists. It definitely helps to have the right attitude. If you can view the bugs and problems you have to fix as an adventure game puzzle rather than cleaning up other people's messes, you definitely enjoy your job more. Having co-workers who understand your work definitely helps, because working a vacuum sucks.
  - henrik_w 8y ago
    This is exactly how I see bugs - a mystery to be figured out. In the process of figuring it out, you usually learn a lot about the system, and you (hopefully) become better at avoiding creating bugs yourself. https://henrikwarne.com/2012/10/21/4-reasons-why-bugs-are-good-for-you/ https://henrikwarne.com/2012/10/21/4-reasons-why-bugs-are-go...
  - erikpukinskis 8y ago
    BOFH apparently stands for “Bastard Operator From Hell”.
doesnt_know 8y ago
Everything Julia makes and writes is amazing, she seems to have an almost bottomless pit of enthusiasm and talent. I simultaneously deeply admire and am a little jealous of her at the same time, is there a word for that?
- pkghost 8y ago
  bewunderungeifersucht
  - Roxxik 8y ago
    This looks like german to me, but i haven't ever seen these words used together. I thought it might be some old german and googled it, but searching "bewunderungeifersucht" just yields your comment and "bewunderungseifersucht", which i deemed more likely, yields nothing. Disclaimer: I'm from germany
    - Kliment 8y ago
      Also a German speaker, just a clarification for non-German speakers, it appears to be a compound word neologism (combining two words that have not been combined before, similar to "frenemy" being derived from "friend"+"enemy" in English) that combines "Bewunderung"(admiration) and "Eifersucht"(jealousy). This sort of stuff does work in German, but it looks odd (and is a noun and should be capitalized anyway).
      - tosh 8y ago
        Bewunderungseifersucht
      - codazoda 8y ago
        Bewundersucht Rolls off the tongue a little better. I dunno if such shortening would happen. For fun, for example, in a friendly conversation where you make up your own words like "frenemy". I'm an English speaker with some German training but no speaking. :) Edit: Looks like this is used in one place on the Internet and Google actually translates it "admiration" if used in a sentence. "können mich mit ihrer eifernden Sehn-, Wunder-, Macht-, Bewundersucht" "I can with their zealous yearning, wonder, power, admiration"
empath75 8y ago
Really nothing that most of us do most of the time is very difficult, nor does it require very much knowledge (except for the sake of productivity) All that’s required is the ability to decompose problems and systems into smaller pieces and trace cause and effect. With those two things and a smidge of domain knowledge and a lot of persistence you can move mountains.
rachelbythebay 8y ago
Good post. Keep asking why. See where it takes you.
saagarjha 8y ago
Regardless of the content (which is excellent as usual) I think this is the best layout of a presentation transcript I've seen.
superconformist 8y ago
I was like, this talk is like [nervous stab of laughter] you know like uh cringeworthy?
c22 8y ago
Another reason not to ask the most experienced person you can find is that it's likely been a long time since they've approached their domain from anything near your perspective. They've deeply internalized complicated abstractions and terminology that you might not have even been exposed to yet. By asking someone with less experience they're more likely to understand what you're asking for and be able to explain it in a way you can follow.
SomethingOrNot 8y ago
I too want to be full of myself.
michaelmcmillan 8y ago
This was a really cool format for presenting your deck!
hamilyon2 8y ago
Do unfinished learning projects and "writing keyboard driver" stuff really helps?
WCityMike 8y ago
The title makes me wonder whether she was a fan of Diane Duane's "So You Want to Be a Wizard" series, which predated Harry Potter and shows a remarkably science-based wizardry with much the same mindset towards learning.

282 points by swsieber 8y ago

Cool.

enz 8y ago

This is one of my favorite jvns post, with How to teach yourself hard things (https://jvns.ca/blog/2018/09/01/learning-skills-you-can-practice/ https://jvns.ca/blog/2018/09/01/learning-skills-you-can-prac...). Very inspiring.

Buttons840 8y ago
Note: How to teach yourself hard things is more recent than So you want to be a wizard. (Just mentioning this because it gives some context as to how they're related.) So you want to be a wizard was turned into a "Zine": https://jvns.ca/blog/2017/12/01/new-zine--so-you-want-to-be-a-wizard/ https://jvns.ca/blog/2017/12/01/new-zine--so-you-want-to-be-...
- codazoda 8y ago
  I absolutely love her zines and she's inspired me to create my own. My latest series try's to teach programming to beginners by creating art. It's like the type-in books and magazines I grew up with. https://gumroad.com/l/splashofcode https://gumroad.com/l/splashofcode

peterwwillis 8y ago

I get that these posts are intentionally written to make it look like a 12 year old wrote them, to give you the idea that it's not too challenging to understand. But it's a bit of a false premise: children can often pick up new concepts faster than adults. In addition, you're not going to express the idea better by putting in exclamation marks, hearts and stars, but you might turn off people who aren't 12. I'm sure Julia is a wonderful engineer, but I just find this writing style grating and I give up reading them. (I have the same reaction to lots of memes splitting up posts) That said, it's her blog, she should write them however she wants to.

CJefferson 8y ago
Or, there are a whole bunch of people, children and adults alike, who love hearts and stars. There are plenty of articles written as long paragraphs of black and white prose if you want them. I personally love some colour and brightness wherever I find it. I should start a blog on advanced computational mathematics, with kittens and memes.
- Ibethewalrus 8y ago
  There’s a video about copyright and fair use made entirely of Disney’s movie clips, using dialogue from the movies
muglug 8y ago
Disclaimer: I’ve never met Julia, but have attended one of her talks in person. I feel the exact opposite - there’s far too much in CS that’s unnecessarily obfuscated. Sometimes the obfuscation makes the author/presenter seem smart, but it’s incredibly tiresome and reduces the audience. Julia’s talks are the exact opposite - they’re well-thought-out, with the clear intent to help people understand things, not burnish her (v. impressive) credentials.
- SomethingOrNot 8y ago
  Everyone who writes things like this (and talks etc.) are trying to burnish their reputation. The latest edition of false modesty doesn’t change that.
tptacek 8y ago
I never once got the impression that Julia was dumbing her presentation down to a juvenile level to make it more accessible. Rather, the impression I get is that Julia is as enthusiastic about this stuff as anyone has ever been about anything, and that she has no pretense of having known any of it last week, nor does she care if you did. It's pretty charming and unique combination (it's rare enough that when status-conscious adults come across it, it reads juvenile!) and is my favorite thing about the way she writes and presents. When she writes about stuff, she doesn't have to judge each element she's discussing for whether it's interesting or worth calling out; it's all interesting. That's a good way to avoid missing interesting observations, I think.

spudlyo 8y ago

Thank you Julia for dropping knowledge and sharing your infectious enthusiasm for systems engineering. I hope your work inspires others who have walked the path of the systems wizard to generously publicly share their experience and knowledge with others.

dougdonohoe 8y ago

This is some really great stuff. One of my favorite parts of working in software/computers is "figuring stuff out". My brain always nags "there has to be a reason for this" ... and doesn't let go until I really understand what that reason is. That drive to understand the why (and not "magic") has led me to understand things like JVM garbage collection, ntp (network time protocol), HTTP, vector graphics, and on and on. Great stuff!

thaumaturgy 8y ago

The most valuable part of this talk has got to be her attitude (not to diminish the rest of it, which is great too). After you've been around the block a few times, and tried to learn all the things, and been responsible for trying to un-break a lot of the things, and the things that need to be un-broken start to look like an endless trickle, and then -- as word gets out that you can fix broken things -- starts to look like a Firehose of Infinite Dumping, then your attitude can start to take a hit. Because ultimately you want to start making things better, not just dealing with other people's mistakes all the time, and endlessly chasing mistakes prevents you from making things better, and then you start to see common causes behind a lot of the mistakes and you think, if people would just fix those, I'd like my job a lot more. And that attitude is self-defeating. It leads to unhappiness and unfulfillment and procrastination and mistakes of your own and, finally, resentment. Fostering an attitude like hers is a great antidote for all that, and the longer you can hold on to a curious and positive attitude, the longer you'll be happy to learn about new things and new ways of fixing things.

spudlyo 8y ago
This may be one reason why the BOFH stereotype exists. It definitely helps to have the right attitude. If you can view the bugs and problems you have to fix as an adventure game puzzle rather than cleaning up other people's messes, you definitely enjoy your job more. Having co-workers who understand your work definitely helps, because working a vacuum sucks.
- henrik_w 8y ago
  This is exactly how I see bugs - a mystery to be figured out. In the process of figuring it out, you usually learn a lot about the system, and you (hopefully) become better at avoiding creating bugs yourself. https://henrikwarne.com/2012/10/21/4-reasons-why-bugs-are-good-for-you/ https://henrikwarne.com/2012/10/21/4-reasons-why-bugs-are-go...
- erikpukinskis 8y ago
  BOFH apparently stands for “Bastard Operator From Hell”.

doesnt_know 8y ago

Everything Julia makes and writes is amazing, she seems to have an almost bottomless pit of enthusiasm and talent. I simultaneously deeply admire and am a little jealous of her at the same time, is there a word for that?

pkghost 8y ago
bewunderungeifersucht
- Roxxik 8y ago
  This looks like german to me, but i haven't ever seen these words used together. I thought it might be some old german and googled it, but searching "bewunderungeifersucht" just yields your comment and "bewunderungseifersucht", which i deemed more likely, yields nothing. Disclaimer: I'm from germany
  - Kliment 8y ago
    Also a German speaker, just a clarification for non-German speakers, it appears to be a compound word neologism (combining two words that have not been combined before, similar to "frenemy" being derived from "friend"+"enemy" in English) that combines "Bewunderung"(admiration) and "Eifersucht"(jealousy). This sort of stuff does work in German, but it looks odd (and is a noun and should be capitalized anyway).
    - tosh 8y ago
      Bewunderungseifersucht
    - codazoda 8y ago
      Bewundersucht Rolls off the tongue a little better. I dunno if such shortening would happen. For fun, for example, in a friendly conversation where you make up your own words like "frenemy". I'm an English speaker with some German training but no speaking. :) Edit: Looks like this is used in one place on the Internet and Google actually translates it "admiration" if used in a sentence. "können mich mit ihrer eifernden Sehn-, Wunder-, Macht-, Bewundersucht" "I can with their zealous yearning, wonder, power, admiration"

empath75 8y ago

Really nothing that most of us do most of the time is very difficult, nor does it require very much knowledge (except for the sake of productivity) All that’s required is the ability to decompose problems and systems into smaller pieces and trace cause and effect. With those two things and a smidge of domain knowledge and a lot of persistence you can move mountains.

rachelbythebay 8y ago

Good post. Keep asking why. See where it takes you.

saagarjha 8y ago

Regardless of the content (which is excellent as usual) I think this is the best layout of a presentation transcript I've seen.

superconformist 8y ago

I was like, this talk is like [nervous stab of laughter] you know like uh cringeworthy?

c22 8y ago

Another reason not to ask the most experienced person you can find is that it's likely been a long time since they've approached their domain from anything near your perspective. They've deeply internalized complicated abstractions and terminology that you might not have even been exposed to yet. By asking someone with less experience they're more likely to understand what you're asking for and be able to explain it in a way you can follow.

SomethingOrNot 8y ago

I too want to be full of myself.

michaelmcmillan 8y ago

This was a really cool format for presenting your deck!

hamilyon2 8y ago

Do unfinished learning projects and "writing keyboard driver" stuff really helps?

WCityMike 8y ago

The title makes me wonder whether she was a fan of Diane Duane's "So You Want to Be a Wizard" series, which predated Harry Potter and shows a remarkably science-based wizardry with much the same mindset towards learning.