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What makes one programmer an order of magnitude faster than another is the ability to intuit an algorithm to solve a novel problem. Where one programmer struggl
by extension 16y ago
What makes one programmer an order of magnitude faster than another is the ability to intuit an algorithm to solve a novel problem. Where one programmer struggles to wrap their head around a problem and the other immediately sees the solution, that's where you will find such a huge difference in productivity. This intuition comes from experience, but some learn much faster than others.
Mastery of tools, languages, libraries, posture, etc. are significant but not to the same degree.
- bcaulf 16y agoAgreed. Or better, the ability to easily see a number of approaches all of which would work (algorithm designers love to publish improvements on the state of the art), then go about selecting perhaps the simplest. If performance is an issue, one that meets the performance requirements. If future changes are anticipated, one that won't make that too difficult. Doing all this without the need to do time consuming research is what makes for productivity.