3 ms·

Could you share some examples of the type of stuff you’ve added to this system that’s had that kind of professional pay off? I’m familiar with the approach, but

Could you share some examples of the type of stuff you’ve added to this system that’s had that kind of professional pay off? I’m familiar with the approach, but I suspect part of the reason I’ve not been able to maintain a long term habit is I’ve always used it for things like learning a language. Which is great, but doesn’t have the kind of process re-enforcing payoff given I rarely get to apply it. And I’m drawn a blank on the kind of professional stuff I’d put in here.

travisjungroth 4y ago
Here's an example: statistical methods. I'm a software engineer and was going to start helping with analysis tooling. Having characteristics and example use cases for many statistical methods helped me work faster and make better choices than needing to look things up. Generalized, cases where you can choose from one of a few options/technique and this choice is an expression of your professional opinion are good. What you memorize are the attributes of the options that you tend to make the choices on. It's hard to get across (and impossible if people don't want to believe it) the difference in speed/quality/accuracy that comes from having 3 attributes of 10 options at instant recall versus a few that come to mind right away and then more if you remember to try.
karatinversion 4y ago
Some examples from my life: - Where are the log files for $service stored? - What do the values of $one_letter_code in this message format/log line mean? - What do I grep for to diagnose $problem? More generally, when I find that I have memorised how to look something up (search slack for $foo to find the instructions, type $bar in the browser address bar to bring up the wiki page with the host name I need), I try to just memorise the fact directly, to reduce friction.

3 ms·

Could you share some examples of the type of stuff you’ve added to this system that’s had that kind of professional pay off? I’m familiar with the approach, but

by glenngillen 4y ago

travisjungroth 4y ago
Here's an example: statistical methods. I'm a software engineer and was going to start helping with analysis tooling. Having characteristics and example use cases for many statistical methods helped me work faster and make better choices than needing to look things up. Generalized, cases where you can choose from one of a few options/technique and this choice is an expression of your professional opinion are good. What you memorize are the attributes of the options that you tend to make the choices on. It's hard to get across (and impossible if people don't want to believe it) the difference in speed/quality/accuracy that comes from having 3 attributes of 10 options at instant recall versus a few that come to mind right away and then more if you remember to try.
karatinversion 4y ago
Some examples from my life: - Where are the log files for $service stored? - What do the values of $one_letter_code in this message format/log line mean? - What do I grep for to diagnose $problem? More generally, when I find that I have memorised how to look something up (search slack for $foo to find the instructions, type $bar in the browser address bar to bring up the wiki page with the host name I need), I try to just memorise the fact directly, to reduce friction.