4 ms·

I know it's meant to be funny, but the number of tech people who spend zero time learning about "what's out there", are usually not the most effective developer

by adra 3y ago

I know it's meant to be funny, but the number of tech people who spend zero time learning about "what's out there", are usually not the most effective developers. You won't find better solutions to existing or even new problems without an interest in industry. Maybe this particular article isn't "industry valuable fair enough", but having zero interest in refining and enhancing your craft beyond the work in front of you is almost guaranteed to end with worse outcomes.

eszed 3y ago
Hard agree. Another flaw in his thinking: brain cycles and sub-conscious processing. I'm in the middle of a hard problem right now. I ran out of ideas, and opened HN about half an hour ago. In that time, without "trying", I've had two new ideas - one sent me back to my notes, which revealed that my original thinking was flawed; the second sent me to documentation, which suggested a new route to pursue. I'm digesting the implications of that while I write this. Beating my head against the problem directly for thirty minutes would have been less productive. (Though if I wasn't WFH I would have, and also been miserable, and learned less about the industry than I have from this thread. So there's that.) I'm far from a 10x anything, but I don't have the only brain which works this way.
- littlekey 3y ago
  Not disagreeing with you, but just as a thought exercise: what if you had spent that time going for a walk outside rather than on HN?
  - eszed 3y ago
    If I'd done that I couldn't have context-switched back to the documentation so easily! Nah. I get what you're saying, and it's a great idea. Sometimes I do go for a walk. More often I do dishes. Those are both, however, higher-commitment, more time-consuming activities than flipping to a different window. If I remember correctly, my sticking point that day felt like a small one, and so the distraction / break I felt like I needed was correspondingly small.

by adra 3y ago

eszed 3y ago

Hard agree. Another flaw in his thinking: brain cycles and sub-conscious processing. I'm in the middle of a hard problem right now. I ran out of ideas, and opened HN about half an hour ago. In that time, without "trying", I've had two new ideas - one sent me back to my notes, which revealed that my original thinking was flawed; the second sent me to documentation, which suggested a new route to pursue. I'm digesting the implications of that while I write this. Beating my head against the problem directly for thirty minutes would have been less productive. (Though if I wasn't WFH I would have, and also been miserable, and learned less about the industry than I have from this thread. So there's that.) I'm far from a 10x anything, but I don't have the only brain which works this way.

littlekey 3y ago
Not disagreeing with you, but just as a thought exercise: what if you had spent that time going for a walk outside rather than on HN?
- eszed 3y ago
  If I'd done that I couldn't have context-switched back to the documentation so easily! Nah. I get what you're saying, and it's a great idea. Sometimes I do go for a walk. More often I do dishes. Those are both, however, higher-commitment, more time-consuming activities than flipping to a different window. If I remember correctly, my sticking point that day felt like a small one, and so the distraction / break I felt like I needed was correspondingly small.