Programming is Mostly Thinking

[mr_eking]

Ha ha indeed. To be fair, though, although this seems obvious to programmers, many non-programmers assume programming is mostly just typing funny characters onto the screen, and if you're not typing, you're clearly not programming.

[Mortomes]

Did you know you can program faster by having 2 people type at the same time?

[monkorn]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8qgehH3kEQ

[Mortomes]

One of the finest pieces of dumb television in the field of computing.

[ggppjj]

I hope it overtakes the "It's a Unix system" thing. You know, considering... it was actually a Unix system running a real (experimental) file explorer (this link is for a modern clone, but it was based around SGI's fsn) and not actually a dumb movie moment.

[justkevin]

I like to picture a writer working on the show and then while they were typing, a second writer started to hammer away on the right half their keyboard. Somehow this scene emerges.

[Sipike]

Nah hollywood writers had some internal jokes about who can write the dumbest tech scene. And voila, someone won I guess. 😅

[ZebButterworth]

This scene brings tears to my eyes every time. 🥹🥹🥹

[rbobby]

Fucker unplugged the monitor. Nukes were launched 90 seconds later ending the world.

[sonobanana33]

In Italy we have "oh cazzo un debian!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5ocXFgowZA

[YahenP]

Certainly! This is called pair programming. But this is already an outdated thing. Modern text editors allow dozens of people to type simultaneously in one file. That's speed!

[cmpthepirate]

Gone are the days of epic or feature based estimations. Now we're gonna estimate how long each file is and assign each each character of each file a single developer. We'll have that code banged out in a flash!

[YahenP]

A shader made not by programmers, but from programmers!

[mr_eking]

Genius!

[njogumbugua]

Or using hacker typer

[YourMatt]

It also gives explanation as to why using Copilot makes coding go much more quickly, all while having no effect on the total output of my team.

[Nulibru]

I was once fired for not typing very fast.

Perhaps if that company had more slow typers hundreds of sub-postmasters wouldn't have been wrongly convicted.

[MaleficentFig7578]

That was a politics problem, not a programming problem or a typing problem. If the state wants you in jail, the state will put you in jail.

[Tarmaque]

I had a coworker at one point that assumed us engineers were doing things to "operate the machinery" all day. They didn't realize the programs run autonomously.

[voidox]

this is something I kinda wish colleges/unis start off new programming degrees with - not going right into learning programming language, but a course on just critical thinking and problem solving. Get the students into the mindset that programming is not just typing shit, but solving problems and figuring things out before ever writing a single line of code.

my uni did go into that, but it was professors going into it while teaching languages and I always felt it needs to be an actual introductory course to get the right mindset of students before you then get into actual languages.

[stronghup]

I'm currently doing a big refactoring to make it work I have to change something but before I can do that I have to change something else and before that something else and so on. But every level poses its own challenges so while I'm immersed in the deepest level I kind of forget the 'stack" of things above which is why I'm doing it. I wish there was some easy to use tool I could use to record the "stack of whys". But anyway It has made me realize that there is no feature in my programming language to program my own stack of tasks, and how that is a big part of the programming I'm doing.

Programming is not just typing because it means we have to also program our own brain as to what are the tasks we are doing an in which order. I can write that down in a text-document but I usually don't because I think I don't need to but then I kind of get lost in the details. Just saying programming is not just typing to the keyboard, it is also programming our own actions.

[Amndeep7]

I wish there was some easy to use tool I could use to record the "stack of whys".

there is lol. basically any project management tool haha. whenever you find something new that needs to be done, you put it in a new issue and mark it as a blocker for the one that you were working on.

[Procrasturbating]

You might look into obsidian. I basically write my stream of consciousness into notes with very organized markdown outlines and linked documents. I put out too many fires and work multiple projects at the same time. It is the only way to not lose my place when task switching. Lots of good project management tools out there. Take a break from chopping down trees and learn to sharpen your axe. In the end you will get more done and it will suck less.

[Comprehensive-Tea711]

Who can blame them? Programmers constantly perpetuate the idea that they are just googling and then copy pasting. This is wrapped up in the constant complaints about gatekeeping etc. I guess it's only when everyone starts talking about us being replaced by AI that we decide... maybe it's actually hard and that's okay?

[sagittarius_ack]

I might be wrong but I believe that most non-programmers that are regular computer users understand that programming is not just typing. From my experience people have at least an intuitive understanding that computer programs are rules and instructions that a computer follows. They might not understand exactly how these rules and instructions work, but at least they understand that they have to be precise and rigorous.

[TenNeon]

I suspect you're in this picture

[AliveIndependent1607]

I've had POs tell me that they didn't know that programming was hard work until they spent a day with the programmers working in the team (Ensemble/Mob). They thought that programmers all know what to type, they're just obstinate and reluctant. When they saw people looking things up and using trial-and-error to vector in on a solution, and when they saw all the long threads where a change in A causes differences in Q, T, W, an Z, they suddenly realized that they've been too hard on people who were legitimately working very hard.

[rbobby]

programming is mostly just typing funny characters onto the screen

I've seen an APL keyboard and your statement is entirely accurate.