Scattered Thoughts: Speed matters
The most practical skill you can learn is working smarter. But here's what nobody tells you about working smarter: it often looks like you're working slower.
A programmer might spend 20 hours wrestling with a difficult algorithm, then have an insight in the shower that solves it in 10 lines of code. Those 20 hours weren't wasted—they were necessary
... See moreFS (Farnam Street) • Brain Food: Not Typical
It can help if you focus less on where you are and more on the rate of change. You won't worry so much about doing bad work if you can see it improving. Obviously the faster it improves, the easier this is. So when you start something new, it's good if you can spend a lot of time on it. That's another advantage of being young: you tend to have bigg... See more
Paul Graham • Early Work
Spending time sharpening the axe is almost always worth it
You’re going to be renaming things, going to type definitions, finding references, etc a lot ; you should be fast at this. You should know all the major shortcuts in your editor. You should be a confident and fast typist. You should know your OS well. You should be proficient in the shell. ... See more
You’re going to be renaming things, going to type definitions, finding references, etc a lot ; you should be fast at this. You should know all the major shortcuts in your editor. You should be a confident and fast typist. You should know your OS well. You should be proficient in the shell. ... See more