Right: identify and focus on the key issues.
This link has been bookmarked by 58 people . It was first bookmarked on 30 Dec 2007, by Joel Liu.
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andreyevIn November, I gave the commencement address for Neumont University, a school in Salt Lake City dedicated to teaching computer science where my coauthor lectures. This is that speech.
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tvaananenBruce Eckel talks about the mythical 5% of the programmers who are concentrating on their craft.
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Doug BelshawAbout programming, but talks about how 5% of people are 20x more productive than others.
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31 Dec 07
Bill HLet's say that this follows the 80-20 rule. Roughly 80% of programmers don't read books, don't go to conferences, don't continue learning, don't do anything but what they covered in college. Maybe they've gotten a job in a big company where they can do the same thing over and over. The other 20% struggle with their profession: they read, try to learn things, listen to podcasts, go to user group meetings and sometimes a conference. 80% of this 20% are not very successful yet; they're still beginning, still trying. The other 20% of this 20% -- that's about 5% of the whole who are 20x more productive.
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5% of programmers are 20x more productive than the other 95%.
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Microsoft?
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Good in theory but this is a people problem (remember) and no matter how much you try and attach caveats it still comes out as a schedule.
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Both the world of business and the world of programming is legendary for flailing about with fads that promise to get things done better. The easy fads are patently ridiculous, or become so in short order. The harder ones to spot contain some reason or truth that prevents you from quickly dismissing them. Sometimes you need to pick out the good stuff and throw the rest away, and to do this you need to exercise critical thinking.
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Add Sticky Note"Things are the way they are because they got that way ... one logical step at a time."
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AKA the road to Hell is paved with good intensions.
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So from your fresh new perspective things might look ridiculous, but remember that each decision on the way was made by someone weighing the issues and making what seemed like the best choice at the time. This viewpoint doesn't solve the problem but it can make you more compassionate about the people who are stuck there.
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The other 20% of this 20% -- that's about 5% of the whole who are 20x more productive.
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it's the process of continuous learning that makes the difference.
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They read a lot, and are always ready to tackle a new concept if it looks worthwhile.
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For example, a lot of the ideas in agile methodologies seem to be making some real impacts in productivity and quality. This is because they focus more on the issues of people working together and less on technologies.
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Add Sticky NoteIn response to this policy, a smart manager who has a good team hires extra people who can be thrown overboard without damaging the team.
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holy crap - who'd want to work at a company like that? Survivor meets The Office!
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Jack Welch, Manager of the Century, former CEO of GE applied this theory. He use to fire the bottom 10% Managers.
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Waltzing with Bears
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Peopleware
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David Feld"The statistics are sobering: 50-80% of programming projects fail. .... An even more fascinating metric is this: 5% of programmers are 20x more productive than the other 95%."
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30 Dec 07
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Doug McCaughanWaltzing with Bears
programming productivity learning business speech software development
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Let's say that this follows the 80-20 rule. Roughly 80% of programmers don't read books, don't go to conferences, don't continue learning, don't do anything but what they covered in college. Maybe they've gotten a job in a big company where they can do the same thing over and over. The other 20% struggle with their profession: they read, try to learn things, listen to podcasts, go to user group meetings and sometimes a conference. 80% of this 20% are not very successful yet; they're still beginning, still trying. The other 20% of this 20% -- that's about 5% of the whole who are 20x more productive.
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These people are not those who can remember all the moves and have fingers that fly over the keyboard erupting system commands. In my experience those in the 5% must struggle to get there, and struggle to stay there, and it's the process of continuous learning that makes the difference.
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But some ideas seem to have staying power. For example, a lot of the ideas in agile methodologies seem to be making some real impacts in productivity and quality. This is because they focus more on the issues of people working together and less on technologies.
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Usually the things that make or break a project are process and people issues. The way that you work on a day-to-day basis. Who your architects are, who your managers are, and who you are working with on the programming team. How you communicate, and most importantly how you solve process and people problems when they come up. The fastest way to get stuck is to think that it's all about the technology and to believe that you can ram your way through the other things. Those other things are the most likely ones to stop you cold.
In my first jobs, I saw lots of managers making stupid decisions, and so, logically, I came to the conclusion that managers and management was stupid. It's a commonly held belief in our profession: if you're not smart enough to deal with the technology, you go into management. Over time I very slowly learned that the task of management wasn't stupid, it's just very, very hard. That's why all those stupid decisions are still being made; management is much harder than technology because it involves virtually no deterministic factors. It's all guesswork, so if you don't have good intuition you'll probably make stupid decisions. Napoleon wanted lucky generals rather than smart ones.
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A great new source of information is podcasts. Anyone can do these so many of them are bad, but there are some real gems out there, podcasts that specifically cover topics in our profession. I learn a lot from these, and they help me stay current.
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There's a book that uses studies to debunk beliefs about managing people and projects; it happens to be software-based but the thinking could be applied almost everywhere. This book is called Peopleware; it's small and fun to read and I recommend it to almost everyone. Alas, it really isn't a book of answers, it just firmly destroys many closely-held ideas about how people work in business situations that involve programming. The best thing about it is that it reminds you how easy it is to take a wrong idea and build a bad world around it. It helps you ask questions.
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So from your fresh new perspective things might look ridiculous, but remember that each decision on the way was made by someone weighing the issues and making what seemed like the best choice at the time. This viewpoint doesn't solve the problem but it can make you more compassionate about the people who are stuck there.
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Public Stiky Notes
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