CitC: 03 The Hacker Mindset
Folksonomies: education teaching hacking
Memes
21 APR 2011
Brad Fitzpatrick on What Makes a Great Programmer
Seibel: What do you think is the most important skill for a programmer to have?
Fitzpatrick: Thinking like a scientist; changing one thing at a time. Patience and trying to understand the root cause of things. Especially when you're debugging something or designing something that's not quite working. I've seen young programmers say, "Oh, shit, it doesn't work," and then rewrite it all. Stop. Try to figure out what's going on. Learn how to write things incrementally so that at each stage you...
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A programmer must think like a scientist.
21 APR 2011
Research Subjects Expand Naturally on Their Own
John Washbrook, who was himself a senior academic in the department, took me under his wing and he told me something that very important. He said, "Just start something, no matter how humble." This is not recall; about programming, this is about research. But no matter how humble and unoriginal and unimportant it may seem, start something and write a paper ab about it So that's what I did. it turned out to be a very significant piece of advice.
I've told that to every research student I've e...Folksonomies: computer science reasearch
Folksonomies: computer science reasearch
Simon Peyton Jones tells research students to just start researching, and the subject will extend out before you for exploration naturally.
21 APR 2011
Spend 20 Percent of Your Time Learning New Things
He says things like, "Do good stuff." He says, "If you don't do good stuff, in good areas, it doesn't matter what you do." And Hamming said, "I always spend a day a week learning new stuff. That means I spend 20 percent more of my time than my colleagues learning new stuff. Now 20 percent at compound interest means that after four and a half years I will know twice as much as them. And because of compound interest, this 20 percent extra, one day a week, after five years I will know three time...From Joe Armstrong, the "compound interest" on this learning will result in big gains in the future.
21 APR 2011
Fran Allen Sees Computer Science as Science
Seibel: Do you think of yourself as a scientist, an engineer, an artist, or a draftsman?
Allen: I think of myself as a computer scientist I was involved in my corner of the field in helping it develop. And those were interesting times—the emergence of computer science—because there was a Ic lot of question about, "Is this a science? Anything that has to have science in its name n't a science." And it was certainly unclear to me what it meant.
But compilers were a very old field—older than...Folksonomies: programming computer science
Folksonomies: programming computer science
1 Allen started out as a programmer, but became a scientist to perform her job well.
14 FEB 2011
"Kill Your Darlings" in Computer Science
George Malamidis taught me something about code attachment a few years ago: You always gain by allowing someone to show you an alternative solution. If someone wants to solve a problem in a different way, there are several gains to be had. If their way is inferior, you have an opportunity to mentor a team-mate. If their way is equally elegant, you've gained another solution, or point of view that may be superior in the future. If their way is superior you learn something new and the codebase ...Folksonomies: computer programming computer science
Folksonomies: computer programming computer science
The "Kill Your Darlings" concepts applies not only to writing, but to code, frameworks, and languages as well; although, the concept has more to do with opening up the world to improved versions of these things.
References
21 APR 2011
Coders at Work: Reflections on the Craft of Programming
Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Seibel , Peter (2009-09-16), Coders at Work: Reflections on the Craft of Programming, Apress, Retrieved on 2011-04-21Source Material [codersatwork.com]
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14 FEB 2011
Kill Your Darlings
Electronic/World Wide Web>Blog: Fields, Jay (March 31, 2009), Kill Your Darlings, Jay Fields' Thoughts, Retrieved on 2011-02-14Source Material [blog.jayfields.com]
Folksonomies: programming computer science
Folksonomies: programming computer science
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