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>>> He gave me a long explanation about software engineering principles. I waved him away and asked how he did it in five seconds. He said “Well, it just felt r

>>> He gave me a long explanation about software engineering principles. I waved him away and asked how he did it in five seconds. He said “Well, it just felt right. Ok, let’s go to lunch, you can fix it afterwards.” Yes. I do a lot of coding on feel, and just today was explaining why something could be done one of two ways but one was better. It took about 30 seconds for my concious brain to work out why it was, even though my unconcious brain knew it straight away. Weird. Try getting that in an expert system (which might be why they never took off). And of course try getting that into a CDN without equivalent of twenty years practise. How do we label good and bad business decisions? Every day? (side note: actually this is a serious thing I am hoping to work on next year. I think the next big stage of human computer work is computer coaching or feedback on our behaviour. Easy things like our spending habits but heading towards coaching on interpersonal actions - could we for example film a great manager day in day out and identify their activities - and then get them to label the actions - who they spoke to who they encourage why they took that negotiating stance. Do it enough times and you have a real training base.)

allenu 6y ago
So much of coding and seeing good and bad design patterns is unconscious pattern matching and unconscious heuristics. I have the same experience of trying to put into words why one design pattern is better than another and it definitely is frustrating because from experience I do have a tacit "feel" about why something is wrong but to convey that to someone else is a challenge.
- andruby 6y ago
  Would we call that "intuition"?
  - lifeisstillgood 6y ago
    yeah, but we want to analyse this - is my intuition same as most other 20 year experienced coders? Is it good / correct intuition? is it transferable - can I see same patterns in a different language ? how far away from one language do we go before it breaks down (ie php -> python > java > clojure.)
gen220 6y ago
I totally agree with this. I think the best engineers are the ones with both a strong "feel", but also a keen ability to introspect, explain, and justify their instinct. The other key ingredient is knowing when to let your intuition run wild, and when to apply it like a seasoning. On your side note: I also agree here, though the problem may be intractable, since really good managers are not always accustomed to explaining whence their intuition comes.

allenu 6y ago

So much of coding and seeing good and bad design patterns is unconscious pattern matching and unconscious heuristics. I have the same experience of trying to put into words why one design pattern is better than another and it definitely is frustrating because from experience I do have a tacit "feel" about why something is wrong but to convey that to someone else is a challenge.

andruby 6y ago
Would we call that "intuition"?
- lifeisstillgood 6y ago
  yeah, but we want to analyse this - is my intuition same as most other 20 year experienced coders? Is it good / correct intuition? is it transferable - can I see same patterns in a different language ? how far away from one language do we go before it breaks down (ie php -> python > java > clojure.)

gen220 6y ago

I totally agree with this. I think the best engineers are the ones with both a strong "feel", but also a keen ability to introspect, explain, and justify their instinct. The other key ingredient is knowing when to let your intuition run wild, and when to apply it like a seasoning. On your side note: I also agree here, though the problem may be intractable, since really good managers are not always accustomed to explaining whence their intuition comes.