> To succeed, programmers must reduce complex ideas to mental symbols that can be manipulated without articulation. It is hard to achieve this ability and painf

> To succeed, programmers must reduce complex ideas to mental symbols that can be manipulated without articulation. It is hard to achieve this ability and painful to go in the reverse direction. I wonder if I never achieved that ability, which is the reason that I pretty much always articulate coding ideas, in English, in my head. Maybe that's why I document so much better than other devs I've seen. ;p It's sometimes obvious that it isn't the best approach to thinking through some things though. Cue paragraphs of explanation for a one line math formula.