Re: Your Guru Paul Graham is getting trashed on Slashdot.
From: Stephen Kellett (snail_at_objmedia.demon.co.uk)
Date: 08/05/04
- Next message: Rahul Jain: "Re: programming paradigms"
- Previous message: Ben Jessel: "Validating XML against a DTD that is not supplied in the XML Schema"
- In reply to: Christopher C. Stacy: "Re: Your Guru Paul Graham is getting trashed on Slashdot."
- Next in thread: Bo Grimes: "Re: Your Guru Paul Graham is getting trashed on Slashdot."
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]
Date: Thu, 5 Aug 2004 12:50:14 +0100
In message <u8ycuvfzz.fsf@news.dtpq.com>, Christopher C. Stacy
>I can't imagine what that could be; could you elaborate
>on what you mean by "different way"?
No idea, we all perform our work in different ways. People edit and
search and debug in different ways, and at different paces. I worked
with a very productive guy a few years ago. Both of solved the nasty
systems bugs that came our way because other people couldn't do them.
But when I watched him at work he seemed to approach the problem from a
different perspective than me. Two different methodologies, but we both
got great results. Can I describe what he was doing? Not really. Its
just something you have to see, its a bit like driving - most people can
drive, some badly, most are mediocre and a few very well. The
differences between the best and the rest are quite subtle (approach
speed, line through corners, attentiveness, breaking distance, spatial
awareness, ability to assess road conditions accurately). Identifying
the individual differences between two drivers in the same category
could be quite hard, even if their ability is the same - why do two
drivers with the same time take different lines through the same corner?
I've seen some people, when editing, cursor all the way to a word, copy
it, cursor all the way back and then paste it, when it'd be quicker just
to type the word. They've got into this "copy and paste" is always
quicker mindset and don't stop to think "typing this is quicker". Person
in question: talented software engineer, just got some strange typing
issues. Anyway, I can't put my finger on it, but I do think the Emacs
use of modifier-this-that-the-other keys is a large part of it.
I no longer use Emacs. My problems haven't gone away, but they are not
as bad (orders of magnitude better, I was so ill I had to use 2 hands to
hold a beer, now I have mild pain that I can manage). When I have tried
using Emacs again, I find that the key bindings I was using (the usual
defaults) to do stuff are bad news - they make me ill quite rapidly.
I think another factor was that I was 3 months ahead of the software
development schedule (and yet everyone else was on time, indicating the
schedule was valid and I was just steaming ahead). That indicates I was
doing a lot of typing as part of my activities to get 3 months ahead.
Not much consolation when you've done so much damage to yourself you are
damaged forever.
Stephen
-- Stephen Kellett Object Media Limited http://www.objmedia.demon.co.uk RSI Information: http://www.objmedia.demon.co.uk/rsi.html
- Next message: Rahul Jain: "Re: programming paradigms"
- Previous message: Ben Jessel: "Validating XML against a DTD that is not supplied in the XML Schema"
- In reply to: Christopher C. Stacy: "Re: Your Guru Paul Graham is getting trashed on Slashdot."
- Next in thread: Bo Grimes: "Re: Your Guru Paul Graham is getting trashed on Slashdot."
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]
Relevant Pages
|
