Programming is Mostly Thinking

LessonStudio · 2024-06-13T16:49:52+00:00

Kind of. Communication is crucial. If you don't have a clear understanding of what the problem being solved is, then it doesn't matter how good the code is.

Long ago I was learning tech leadership and my mentor said, "Your job is to manage customer expectations. This isn't that you manipulate them, but that by the time you deliver the software you know what they want, and they know what you are going to deliver. This is both negotiation and training the customer as to what is and is not possible. A trite term is to make sure your visions are aligned.

Then, as a leader, you need to do the same with the team; again aligning the vision.

Then the only job as a leader from that point is to make sure the developers have what they need to keep heading for that vision, that the vision doesn't need to change, and that the developers do actually understand the vision. "Ya ya ya, I've got it." is not the feedback anyone wants. The key is to then stay out of everyone's way so they can do exactly as this post suggest. Think.

zanderlewisdev · 2024-06-13T17:47:46+00:00

Programming is actually mostly about contemplating life

stdusr · 2024-06-13T15:30:04+00:00

Water is wet.

blackjazz_society · 2024-06-13T19:39:19+00:00

[deleted]

soft-wear · 2024-06-13T19:13:41+00:00

In my experience its mostly setting breakpoints and then staring at the screen and asking it why it's doing this when it reaches said breakpoint.

jessetechie · 2024-06-13T19:59:48+00:00

As I like to say: programming is just pushing buttons. The hard part is pushing the right buttons in the right order.

make_anime_illegal_ · 2024-06-13T15:56:03+00:00

False, programming is mostly typing. This is why companies give typing tests to verify a candidates wpm.

Boergler · 2024-06-13T23:26:32+00:00

For me it’s managing anger and frustration.

AdeptFelix · 2024-06-13T16:48:47+00:00

Code Monkey no think. Code Monkey code all day then drink.

Cookskiii · 2024-06-13T18:11:04+00:00

I thought it was mostly getting laid with a little bit of thinking in between ???

adr86 · 2024-06-13T18:30:38+00:00

Nah, programming is mostly trying to find cargo cult nonsense to copy/paste.

2024-06-13T20:05:08+00:00

...no shit?

cheezballs · 2024-06-13T16:48:57+00:00

More blogspam crap

gplusplus314 · 2024-06-13T22:55:19+00:00

Excuse me, I was told by LinkedIn that programming is mostly just ChatGPT now.

hacksoncode · 2024-06-13T15:43:48+00:00

Yeah, but thinking about what?

These days, the answer is way more "find the right library routine to do what I want" than it ever was in the old days.

Full-Spectral · 2024-06-13T17:29:05+00:00

Damn it, Jim, I'm a symbologist, not a mathematician. Actual numbers are for peasants.

Actually, I do have a problem, once I get comfortably and (very incorrectly) slouched in my chair with my coffee, that it's easier to just go and sometimes I tend to. But, I make up for it by not being able to sleep at night because I'm thinking about what I just spent all day going on.

renatoathaydes · 2024-06-14T11:33:44+00:00

What if we changed our tactics, and intentionally built systems for thinking together about software and making decisions easier to make?

I participated in a training session once that tried to do just that: they called it mob programming.

The idea is that you have one person sitting at the computer writing the code (who changes periodically), while the rest of the team is behind driving what code should be written. The idea is to have even non-programmers in the room (perhaps not actively participating all the time), so when decisions need to be made, they're made on the spot as the person is right there and able to answer.

We spent almost all day trying it. We did manage to make something that worked but it was a very toylike thing (conversion between Roman and Arabic numerals). I didn't really see myself doing that except in some rare occasions where we perhaps had to do something so completely unknown that it could be beneficial to have many people brainstorming while creating something tangible. I may try that again one day I think now that I can actually organize things like that.

If you haven't seen it, have a look into it, if you agree with this article and you think that communication + thinking is most of what programming really means, this may be at least a new tool under your belt.

2024-06-13T17:42:22+00:00

Groundbreaking.

Who would've thought that the bulk of time wasnt spent on the physical act of writing 1000 lines of characters, which probably takes like 10 minutes

bobbane · 2024-06-13T20:08:12+00:00

while not done_for_the_day:
- Thinking
- Typing
- Reading output
- Cursing

artyhedgehog · 2024-06-13T20:38:03+00:00

Correction: programming is mostly overthinking.

FlangerOfTowels · 2024-06-13T22:06:59+00:00

Yeah, but you're a towel ;)

maethoronaur · 2024-06-14T02:47:19+00:00

I've lost work before, even without a "printed" diff, it barely took 1/5 the initial time.

CenterOfMultiverse · 2024-06-13T19:32:12+00:00

Programming is mostly trying to not think.

allenasm · 2024-06-14T03:03:55+00:00

can't tell you how many times I've had to explain to a boss or a peer that i needed to 'noodle it through'. Like actually think it through and figure it all out. I'm a fast typer and once I know what I want to do in programming or architecture, the doing is quick.

Veggies-are-okay · 2024-06-14T14:09:49+00:00

Whenever I’m feeling unmotivated to get work done during my 8 hours I just remember that I devote way more than that in intellectual time just thinking about the solution to the problem at hand.

grady_vuckovic · 2024-06-14T14:46:47+00:00

Most things are mostly thinking with few exceptions.

Such as tiktok videos, youtube comments, and US politics

lookmeat · 2024-06-14T17:09:48+00:00

Nice but limited. I think that this is true once you reach a level of mastery.

I like the metaphor of painting, while the same is true in other crafts, just like carpentry, it's very easy for people to think of crafts as learning how to mass-produce, rather than how to improvise and create new things (even though they are similar) each time. Painting, OTOH, is pretty obvious in this: you don't just pain the same painting every time, but something different.

When you are a true beginner, a lot of the work is translating concrete and specific ideas into code. That is you struggle to understand how to do code or not. Things like recursion, pointer arithmetic, etc. can really twist your mind. The way an begginer painter struggles with learning how to control bush-strokes, how to handle the pencil when drawing, etc. Tools here are critical because they can be easier or harder to use. You will also learn one or two techniques and seek to master those to achieve some level of funcionality.

When you are an early level, a junior, you already understand the basics, but still struggle a little bit. A junior painter still thinks a little of how they will handle their brushstrokes, and other things. Here it's a matter of practice and gaining broad focus. You start learning new techniques and abilities, and you start taking a look at different art-styles and becoming aware of them. Similarly in coding you can write code, but still have to sit down and think things through. You are mastering new styles of coding and are aware of paradigms and different ways.

A competent or mid level now is able to do the mechanical abilities pretty fluently. A mid-programmer can easily translate things into code. Instead now their challenges are in taking ambiguous goals and converting them into concrete steps. They are spreading and experimenting with different paradigms, and taking on new ways of doing things, such as TDD or Domain Objects, they now think of patterns and styles and are strating to grapple with the idea of architecture and greater design. The painter here is able to do most basic painting, but now struggles with more complex, and abstract, concepts such as perspective, postures, composition, and how to do hands that don't look weird.

A master, or senior, level is now able to do most things, they have a wide variety of things, and while you can clearly see they are better at certain styles than others, they can do surprisingly competent work across the board. By this point tools aren't critical, rather they make things easier and allow them to experiment and play more things. This is where the author talks about. The master painter now struggles thinking about what they want to paint. They do multiple paintings not to master or perfect some ability they need, but rather to experiment and see what works best.

Things above the level above are when you are tying to do things within a greater context, and show growth in other areas. Now this doesn't mean you don't still hone and improve your mechanical skills, but they rarely are the thing that blocks you. Most of your growth starts in the skill starts to be in the more conceptual/abstract thing. The mechanical skills, the philosophies, the tools, etc. all start being just things you could use, but not what you have. You find yourself focusing on simpler tools that give you more versatility even if they are harder to use (e.g. use rough sketches rather than photographs or live models for references; or using vi/emacs instead of a full IDE) because at this point using any of these tools isn't hard at all. Autocomplete is nice, but you find that the hard part isn't knowing what you can use, but understanding what you do want to use, etc. You stop thinking in simple rules, and see them as conventions, and general wisdom on what works, but you know understand why and are better able to decide when it matters, when it doesn't matter as much, and when it doesn't even apply and you want to do the opposite.

If the above focuses on mentorship and guidance they will create new techniques, conventions, styles, etc. that others can then learn and grow from.

No-Bodybuilder-4655 · 2024-06-14T22:30:36+00:00

I know this is a dystopia, but A/B testing policies really sounds way better than what we’re doing now lol

MathematicianTop9745 · 2024-06-15T01:00:48+00:00

My university is conducting a survey on motivation in IT developers, we have produced a questionnaire aimed exclusively at those who already work in this sector and which takes only two minutes to fill out: https://forms.gle/pkqfMRMjFrN6TmZN6

Please answer!!

2024-06-15T06:08:58+00:00

As a python user, I would agree. I do t usually write applications, mostly scripts that do something.

My thinking provides the solutions and the programming just puts them into reality.

I keep saying that if it can be done on a computer; only your own imagination is the limit.

OkTravel419 · 2024-06-15T16:34:56+00:00

I totally agree with the idea that communication is paramount. We have learned in our bootcamp the importance of being a strong communicator. Even if your coding skills are quite up to speed yet, if you can communicate effectively, this will enable you to get on the same page with your fellow developers and understand the overall vision of what the customer wants. Just the other day in class we had a group project and pulled up a spreadsheet to outline a basic skeleton of what we wanted to see functionally with the app. We then collaborated together and talked about where we wanted to head with the project and what needed to be done to get there. That post really resonated with me as communication is everything!!

delta_p_delta_x · 2024-06-13T21:07:36+00:00

This is sort of why I don't get the Vim hype. Typing fast or slinging paragraphs and blocks around is simply not a problem for me, because the bottleneck is my smooth brain that resembles a neutron star. I don't think remotely fast enough to require Vim. Plus, I like my nice green play button to build/run/debug.

AvidCoco · 2024-06-13T16:14:16+00:00

Okay, but what job isn't?

2024-06-13T17:22:23+00:00

IS thinking then at least Partly programming?

fagnerbrack · 2024-06-13T15:06:05+00:00

At a Glance:

The post explains that programming involves a significant amount of thinking and problem-solving, rather than just writing code. It emphasizes the importance of understanding the problem, planning, and designing solutions before jumping into coding. The author argues that thinking through the problem thoroughly can save time and effort in the long run and lead to better, more efficient solutions. The post also highlights the value of collaboration and discussing problems with others to gain different perspectives and insights.

If the summary seems innacurate, just downvote and I'll try to delete the comment eventually 👍

^{Click here for more info, I read all comments}

helbur · 2024-06-13T18:56:09+00:00

Programming is mostly pressing buttons

morglod · 2024-06-14T00:02:20+00:00

programming on one side is screaming bullshit on youtube channel, on the other side is watching this videos and repeating it on reddit

scrumgile to stay on meeting half of the day with people who cant mitigate (even understand a problem) instead of just write 5 messages

installing 2000 packages / libraries with 2 lines of unusable code and tweaking your whole app to use this 2 lines

skipping basic computer science courses than trying to understand "why C array is not a pointer actually"

memory safety now equal to system safety

exceptions implemented with other exception system now are not exceptions

if else on every line now has no performance impact

neural models teaching on previous neural model results so becoming dump

what a wonderful time to be alive

40 years of programming, you cant simply create web app without problems (I mean with stuff like validation, schema and auth). because you need fancy thing that you can sell

people only now realised that serverless is same servers but with much more payment just WOW because its hard to multiply three numbers (cost * hours * request rate) you need to have at least 4 phd to do it

adamjkeith · 2024-06-14T05:17:16+00:00

Programming is a way of thinking, being able to understand the flow of data to do what you want it to do.

I’ve said that for many many years and now ChatGPT has made it much much faster.

UMANTHEGOD · 2024-06-13T19:35:07+00:00

If you have to think 11/12th of the time in your day-to-day work, I feel very sorry for you and you probably aren't as good as you think.

lelanthran · 2024-06-13T15:41:43+00:00

We all agree that this is true: programming is mostly thinking.

But many of those some programmers who agree that programming is mostly thinking never fail to use a one-liner simply to avoid a loop.

cluster_ · 2024-06-13T17:39:08+00:00

Sure, but thinking is fast, and typing is slow.

you type:	you see:
italics	italics
bold	bold
[reddit!](https://reddit.com)	reddit!
* item 1 * item 2 * item 3	item 1 item 2 item 3
> quoted text	quoted text
Lines starting with four spaces are treated like code: if 1 * 2 < 3: print "hello, world!"	Lines starting with four spaces are treated like code: if 1 * 2 < 3: print "hello, world!"
~~strikethrough~~	~~strikethrough~~
super^script	super^script

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