5 ms·

- Writing as form of (or tool for) thinking; Leslie Lamport said (maybe quoting someone) that if you're thinking, but not writing, you only think that you're th

by dmos62 5y ago

- Writing as form of (or tool for) thinking; Leslie Lamport said (maybe quoting someone) that if you're thinking, but not writing, you only think that you're thinking; - High tolerance for feeling ignorant, confused, silly, inadequate, a novice: none of these states should phase you: you should not have a comfort zone: let your mind feel at ease in not understanding something: go to the eye of the storm and weather it: you'll come out being more capable; - Formal specification (maybe TLA+) when doing something unintuitive, like non-trivial concurrency; or, simpler put, think before you do; - Functional programming, immutability, state machines, reactive programming: whatever you can do to make your systems more declarative and their state easier to reason about; - I'm a geek for tools, and I know that not everyone is like me, but for me choosing the right stack for the job is a big deal, and when saying stack, I mean every tool I'll be using, from the programming languages, to deployment tech, to testing setup; a good tool can effortlessly solve a host of problems.

hi41 5y ago
> High tolerance for feeling ignorant, confused, silly, inadequate, a novice What are some tools to do this? When I feel I don’t know something, I feel very anxious, stupid and unhappy. How did you develop the skill to be okay when ignorant?
- dmos62 5y ago
  This is pretty much about learning to deal with your feelings. Different things work for different people. Mindfulness and acceptance have been interesting concepts to explore for me. Though there too exist a variety of approaches. Explore related literature.
kalev 5y ago
> High tolerance for feeling ignorant, confused, silly, inadequate, a novice: none of these states should phase you: you should not have a comfort zone: let your mind feel at ease in not understanding something: go to the eye of the storm and weather it: you'll come out being more capable; I’d love to be more at ease on uncomfortable situations. Any tips?
- Frummy 5y ago
  For me, it's closing my eyes, taking a few deep breaths, and then continuing. It's okay to be nervous and feel ones heart pounding and just notice all those physiological reactions, but keep going despite that. My old tendency was to switch task to something more comfortable, but just take a silent minute without switching tasks and then keep going.
- dmos62 5y ago
  This isn't really an answer, but I'd say that everyone's different. What works for you might be wildly different than what works for me. For what it's worth, I'd say that it's about being at ease with being uneasy. I find it unproductive to try to get rid of uneasiness.
- ketzo 5y ago
  I will give you a fairly specific answer that comes from my history of going to therapy for anxiety and depression. Whenever I find myself in an anxious or uncomfortable situation, the thing that I need to remind myself is that things are going to turn out okay for me, whatever happens. I do this by working my way up a version of Mazlowe's hierarchy: 1. Am I physically safe? Can I breathe? Can I move my body? 2. Do I have access to shelter? Do I know where my next meal will come from? 3. Are my loved ones safe? Do I have friends and people who care about me? 4. Do I have skills that I care about? Can I do work that I'm proud of? 5. Do I have a job that gives me money? That I like to do? In pretty much any uncomfortable situation you're in (at least in the context of career improvement), almost all of these things are totally unaffected. The sun will rise tomorrow, even if I bomb this programming interview. My friends will still be my friends, even if I do a bad job networking at this event. And the fact that so many of the good things in my life will still be good, even if an uncomfortable situation goes as badly as it can, gives me a lot more confidence. And then, like anything else in the world: practice, practice, practice. The more uncomfortable situations you put yourself in, the more you practice reminding your brain that "everything is okay, actually," the less uncomfortable you'll feel in any given situation.
  - aj7 5y ago
    During stressful times, I’d have agoraphobic attacks in the car. They were pretty terrifying. I’d open all the car windows and blast the radio. But you know what worked much better? Solving math problems in my head.
CyanDeparture 5y ago
Wow, I've never thought of "functional programming, immutability, state machines, reactive programming" as time savers, just better ways of coding stuff, I'm a self-taught engineer and literally all of these just seem like correct way to code stuff beacuse it's much smoother and less faff.

by dmos62 5y ago

hi41 5y ago

> High tolerance for feeling ignorant, confused, silly, inadequate, a novice What are some tools to do this? When I feel I don’t know something, I feel very anxious, stupid and unhappy. How did you develop the skill to be okay when ignorant?

dmos62 5y ago
This is pretty much about learning to deal with your feelings. Different things work for different people. Mindfulness and acceptance have been interesting concepts to explore for me. Though there too exist a variety of approaches. Explore related literature.

kalev 5y ago

> High tolerance for feeling ignorant, confused, silly, inadequate, a novice: none of these states should phase you: you should not have a comfort zone: let your mind feel at ease in not understanding something: go to the eye of the storm and weather it: you'll come out being more capable; I’d love to be more at ease on uncomfortable situations. Any tips?

Frummy 5y ago
For me, it's closing my eyes, taking a few deep breaths, and then continuing. It's okay to be nervous and feel ones heart pounding and just notice all those physiological reactions, but keep going despite that. My old tendency was to switch task to something more comfortable, but just take a silent minute without switching tasks and then keep going.
dmos62 5y ago
This isn't really an answer, but I'd say that everyone's different. What works for you might be wildly different than what works for me. For what it's worth, I'd say that it's about being at ease with being uneasy. I find it unproductive to try to get rid of uneasiness.
ketzo 5y ago
I will give you a fairly specific answer that comes from my history of going to therapy for anxiety and depression. Whenever I find myself in an anxious or uncomfortable situation, the thing that I need to remind myself is that things are going to turn out okay for me, whatever happens. I do this by working my way up a version of Mazlowe's hierarchy: 1. Am I physically safe? Can I breathe? Can I move my body? 2. Do I have access to shelter? Do I know where my next meal will come from? 3. Are my loved ones safe? Do I have friends and people who care about me? 4. Do I have skills that I care about? Can I do work that I'm proud of? 5. Do I have a job that gives me money? That I like to do? In pretty much any uncomfortable situation you're in (at least in the context of career improvement), almost all of these things are totally unaffected. The sun will rise tomorrow, even if I bomb this programming interview. My friends will still be my friends, even if I do a bad job networking at this event. And the fact that so many of the good things in my life will still be good, even if an uncomfortable situation goes as badly as it can, gives me a lot more confidence. And then, like anything else in the world: practice, practice, practice. The more uncomfortable situations you put yourself in, the more you practice reminding your brain that "everything is okay, actually," the less uncomfortable you'll feel in any given situation.
- aj7 5y ago
  During stressful times, I’d have agoraphobic attacks in the car. They were pretty terrifying. I’d open all the car windows and blast the radio. But you know what worked much better? Solving math problems in my head.

CyanDeparture 5y ago

Wow, I've never thought of "functional programming, immutability, state machines, reactive programming" as time savers, just better ways of coding stuff, I'm a self-taught engineer and literally all of these just seem like correct way to code stuff beacuse it's much smoother and less faff.