This is just some nicely worded problem solving methodology.
There's no mind of an artist (by this I think author meant creative, but not logical).
You have a problem. You'll solve it using programming. Yes, there exists a problem solving methodology, and yes, it means you might put your pencil aside and think.
But it's much better to use very well written methodologies of problem solving instead of trying to come up with your mumbojumbobehappyifitworks.
Methodology is logical, it's an algorithm for problem solving that works really well on simple problems. On more complicated ones it helps you get closer to the solution but when all of the methods were tried then there's that creative jump you have to make, by either solving it after thinking (employing creativity) or inventing new methods that will bring you even closer to the solution (employing creativity, again).
It's quite easy for programmers to incorporate problem solving methodologies in their workflow because most of the time their problem can be defined in some way.
On the other hand, a painter, a musician, a writer, their problems are hardly defined if not non-existent. That's why it's hard to self-evaluate, it's hard to see if you are making any progress, and then when something successfully mainstream happens we cherish their remarkable creativity.
Couple of years ago, someone from HN was trying to improve their imagination skills, based on the life of Nikola Tesla. Not sure what happened to that experiment. Anyone knows?
I believe the person doing this was ztratar. If you go to the original post (http://www.zachtratar.com/tesla.html#.VjbLMY9Viko) and look at the comments, you'll see he posted a 1-year update. It sounds like he got good results but found the result not worth the effort. If anyone's interested in potentially continuing with this experiment, please PM me. This is something i'm quite interested in.
But since i moved from home office to a 'normal' company with a 'normal' office, this doesn't work for me anymore. Getting into the zone is impossible in such environments, at least for me and many devs i know.
Yep. Especially open work spaces. I constantly see employees looking for their center, trying to focus, but it's a hard task for sure. I appreciate companies that create focus rooms, for just one person, and encourages employees to get some concentration there.
This is something I've been thinking about for a while. However, I approach it from the perspective of "Can we come up with a way that we can combine coding with meditation?"
I'd like something similar to soroban where coding can act as an entirely mental activity. My fascination with terse languages like J and K arise from this same ideal, being able to code only in your head.
I'd be curious to hear other people's thoughts on the desirability or feasibility of some form of algorithms or coding done entirely mentally, as I haven't discussed this with anyone to date.
I've always enjoyed going for a walk to ponder problems, and then coming back to my desk to "pour out" a solution I have in my head. Sometimes it works right the first time, and other times the process of making everything more explicit and typing it out reveals blind spots in my original thinking.
I started learning K nearly a year ago, and I've found it's much more amenable to coding in my head. Programs work on the first try more frequently. Very satisfying, once you get used to its primitives.
There's no mind of an artist (by this I think author meant creative, but not logical).
You have a problem. You'll solve it using programming. Yes, there exists a problem solving methodology, and yes, it means you might put your pencil aside and think.
But it's much better to use very well written methodologies of problem solving instead of trying to come up with your mumbojumbobehappyifitworks.
Methodology is logical, it's an algorithm for problem solving that works really well on simple problems. On more complicated ones it helps you get closer to the solution but when all of the methods were tried then there's that creative jump you have to make, by either solving it after thinking (employing creativity) or inventing new methods that will bring you even closer to the solution (employing creativity, again).
It's quite easy for programmers to incorporate problem solving methodologies in their workflow because most of the time their problem can be defined in some way.
On the other hand, a painter, a musician, a writer, their problems are hardly defined if not non-existent. That's why it's hard to self-evaluate, it's hard to see if you are making any progress, and then when something successfully mainstream happens we cherish their remarkable creativity.