3 ms·

Software engineering is rife with it.

brutus1213 4y ago
I read Hardy's book when I was in my late 20s, as an aspiring scientist. I do remember coming across this quote and thinking it did not apply to software. Last forward 20ish years, and I think it is absolutely true for me. I used to be a code monk/guru in my younger days .. having responsibilities has truly blunted this. The opportunity cost of any project feels too much. Beyond that, I feel I am less foolish and this is problematic. In my younger days, I was code first, and think later. This resulted in things getting built and iterated on. Now, I think a bit too much and this slows down (or completely eliminates) the building part. I also remember a quote from John Carmack about how with unlimited pizza and soda, you can build anything. This felt so true in my teens and 20s .. just not attainable for me now. I think having a somewhat high salary has something to do with it too (it makes one scared) to go on adventures. I think none of my points generalize beyond myself but something feels broken inside me ... maybe just burnout from tough jobs, responsibilities, etc. If anyone has insight on how to overcome, I'm all ears.
- withinboredom 4y ago
  There's a quote, usually attributed to Einstein: "the only difference between genius and stupidity is that stupidity has no bounds." As you said, you've put limits on yourself to keep yourself from being stupid. Remove your limits and you'll be as productive (if not more productive) than any 20-something, though you'll probably do stupid things from time-to-time. Don't be afraid of being stupid, after all, it has no bounds... :p In all seriousness though, just spend an afternoon coding something you wouldn't normally code without thinking about it first. As you get older, it's harder to just cowboy code something without stopping to think about it. With some practice, you can bang out some pretty high quality code very quickly. And then you'll eventually learn when to cowboy it and when to think. My 2¢. YMMV.

I read Hardy's book when I was in my late 20s, as an aspiring scientist. I do remember coming across this quote and thinking it did not apply to software. Last forward 20ish years, and I think it is absolutely true for me. I used to be a code monk/guru in my younger days .. having responsibilities has truly blunted this. The opportunity cost of any project feels too much. Beyond that, I feel I am less foolish and this is problematic. In my younger days, I was code first, and think later. This resulted in things getting built and iterated on. Now, I think a bit too much and this slows down (or completely eliminates) the building part. I also remember a quote from John Carmack about how with unlimited pizza and soda, you can build anything. This felt so true in my teens and 20s .. just not attainable for me now. I think having a somewhat high salary has something to do with it too (it makes one scared) to go on adventures. I think none of my points generalize beyond myself but something feels broken inside me ... maybe just burnout from tough jobs, responsibilities, etc. If anyone has insight on how to overcome, I'm all ears.

withinboredom 4y ago
There's a quote, usually attributed to Einstein: "the only difference between genius and stupidity is that stupidity has no bounds." As you said, you've put limits on yourself to keep yourself from being stupid. Remove your limits and you'll be as productive (if not more productive) than any 20-something, though you'll probably do stupid things from time-to-time. Don't be afraid of being stupid, after all, it has no bounds... :p In all seriousness though, just spend an afternoon coding something you wouldn't normally code without thinking about it first. As you get older, it's harder to just cowboy code something without stopping to think about it. With some practice, you can bang out some pretty high quality code very quickly. And then you'll eventually learn when to cowboy it and when to think. My 2¢. YMMV.