Link tags: productivity

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Generative AI Is Not Going To Build Your Engineering Team For You - Stack Overflow

People act like writing code is the hard part of software. It is not. It never has been, it never will be. Writing code is the easiest part of software engineering, and it’s getting easier by the day. The hard parts are what you do with that code—operating it, understanding it, extending it, and governing it over its entire lifecycle.

The present wave of generative AI tools has done a lot to help us generate lots of code, very fast. The easy parts are becoming even easier, at a truly remarkable pace. But it has not done a thing to aid in the work of managing, understanding, or operating that code. If anything, it has only made the hard jobs harder.

How do build tools break backwards compatibility? | Go Make Things

If you have a project that uses just plain HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, you can just open up the files and start working on them at any time. A project from 20 years ago will still work just fine, and can be easily modified.

Projects that use build tools? Well… to work with them, you need your build tools to actually build. And that’s not always guaranteed.

Also, it me:

One of my least favorite things as a developer is wanting to do a quick patch fix on an older project—I’m talking a simple one-line of CSS kind of fix—but first having to spend 30 minutes patching my build tools to get them running again.

The Illusion Of Developer “Productivity” Opens The Door To Snake Oil – Codemanship’s Blog

There are a lot of astute observations in here.

Investing in RSS - Web Performance Consulting | TimKadlec.com

Same:

Opening up my RSS reader, a cup of coffee in hand, still feels calm and peaceful in a way that trying to keep up with happenings in other ways just never has.

I’m not fucking about, I’m internalising | Monospaced Monologues

It me (or at least, this is what I like to tell myself):

A lot of the time, it looks like I’m fucking about, but I’m really just internalising the problem at hand, and clearing space for it in my brain.

Procrastination and low motivation make productivity difficult. Body-doubling might help - ABC Everyday

I’ve done this and I can attest that it works, but I never knew it had a name.

Body-doubling is simply having another person in the room with you, working quietly alongside you. They can work on something similar, or something completely different.

Superfan! — Sacha Judd

The transcript of a talk that is fantastic in every sense.

Fans are organised, motivated, creative, technical, and frankly flat-out awe-inspiring.

the Origins of Opera and the Future of Programming – The Composition

An interesting piece by Jessica Kerr that draws lessons from the histories of art and science and applies them to software development.

This was an interesting point about the cognitive load of getting your head around an existing system compared to creating your own:

Why are there a thousand JavaScript frameworks out there? because it’s easier to build your own than to gain an understanding of React. Even with hundreds of people contributing to documentation, it’s still more mental effort to form a mental model of an existing system than to construct your own. (I didn’t say it was faster, but less cognitively strenuous.)

And just because I’ve spent most of last year thinking about how to effectively communicate—in book form—relatively complex ideas clearly and simply, this part really stood out for me:

When you do have a decent mental model of a system, sharing that with others is hard. You don’t know how much you know.

How to Trick Yourself into Writing a Book in Five Easy Steps

Great advice from Jen on writing a book:

  1. Write emails to Ted. Try to find a little comfort zone inside the larger uncomfortable task.
  2. Don’t write a Book. Write Chapters. Break a large chore into smaller tasks and focus on one at a time.
  3. Trap yourself. Set up a workspace that limits distraction and procrastination.
  4. Don’t despair the zero-word-count days. Give yourself credit for behind-the-scenes work, even self-care.
  5. Get amnesia. Keep your eye on the prize.

It is as if you were doing work

Stop dilly-dallying and just get this work done, okay?

prettydiff/wisdom: Building better developers by specifying criteria of success

I frequently see web developers struggling to become better, but without a path or any indication of clear direction. This repository is an attempt to sharing my experiences, and any contributions, that can help provide such a direction.

It’s broken down into four parts:

I don’t necessarily agree with everything here (and I really don’t like the “rockstar” labelling), but that’s okay:

Anything written here is open to debate and challenges are encouraged.

Productivity in Terrible Times

When a solid 67% of your soul is engaged with battles elsewhere, how do you continue on with our ongoing, non-revolutionary work?

angry, productive birds (tecznotes)

Mashing up Angry Birds and spreadsheets to better visualise project time-tracking.

Productivity Future Vision (2011) - YouTube

This vision thing commissioned by Microsoft shows a future-friendly networked world where content flows like water from screen to screen.

What deux yeux have teux deux teuxday?

A very nice take on the to-do list app.

You've got too much e-mail - Los Angeles Times

Tantek is quoted ("EMAIL shall henceforth be known as EFAIL") in this LA Times article on the tyranny of email.

Silicon Valley meetings go 'topless' - Los Angeles Times

A report on the growing trend of banning laptops from meetings. We never have laptops at the Clearleft Monday morning meetings but it wasn't a policy: it's just common sense/courtesy.

Sentenc.es - A Disciplined Way To Deal With Email

I'm the world's worst emailer. This may help me.

Creating Passionate Users: The Asymptotic Twitter Curve

Kathy Sierra doesn't like Twitter. Join us, Kathy... be a lover, not a hater.

box of chocolates » Firefox Power Moves

Handy Firefox keyboard shortcuts, courtesy of Derek.