tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6800934446457898793.post2750328025863824701..comments2011-05-09T10:22:32.849-04:00Jeff Moserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074905903060665396noreply@blogger.comBlogger45125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6800934446457898793.post-24316731629786558862010-01-09T14:08:20.873-05:002010-01-09T14:08:20.873-05:00<strong>Anonymous</strong>: I&#39;ve struggled with that as well. There are a lot of &quot;shiny things&quot; out there. My rule of thumb is to pick something I think is really interesting and then go deep on it enough to write a blog post on it. This forces me to stay focused.<br /><br /><strong>goingkiloer</strong>: Good link. Kathy has great advice.Jeff Moserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074905903060665396noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6800934446457898793.post-39823923165975143682009-11-27T05:06:01.120-05:002009-11-27T05:06:01.120-05:00There&#39;s a good amount of overlap between this post and a talk by Kathy Sierra - <a href="http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail3773.html" rel="nofollow">here</a>.<br />There&#39;s some amount of interesting new material too..goingkiloerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00796753099220662589noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6800934446457898793.post-11063545705911687932009-11-19T12:22:20.817-05:002009-11-19T12:22:20.817-05:00A problem I&#39;ve always encountered in life is my inability to focus. I want to learn everything there is to know about everything. Unfortunately, I will likely never know everything about one thing. I will use this article as inspiration. I now know it&#39;s ok not to know everything, and that we can only hope to improve.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6800934446457898793.post-16097859936654845332009-11-01T14:37:45.327-05:002009-11-01T14:37:45.327-05:00<b>lodewijk</b>: I like the Ericsson part of deliberate practice too -- but it&#39;s hard for me to accept since it can be painful (although needed :-)). Thanks for stopping by!<br /><br /><b>Cihan Tek</b>: Thanks for reading it. You&#39;re right, a lot of this applies well beyond CS since many of the people quoted aren&#39;t programmers. I was just looking for parallels in other disciplines.<br /><br />As for doing it alone -- realize it&#39;s harder. At the very least, look at the work of people you respect if you can. Perhaps look at the code of an open source project you like (e.g. SQLite for embedded work) and see how much your code differs from that. <br /><br />Perhaps start a blog and ask for feedback. I&#39;ve learned a lot from all the generous feedback here. <br /><br />Does that help?Jeff Moserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074905903060665396noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6800934446457898793.post-72893495068490401042009-10-30T22:03:49.889-04:002009-10-30T22:03:49.889-04:00I really like your style of writing and read most of your articles. This one was the most interesting one so far. It&#39;s obvious that you did good research before writing it. Everything you&#39;ve written applies not only to CS, but also on any other field.<br /><br />But reading it made me pessimistic about becoming a expert in software development. Especially the sentence &quot;But the best resource by far is an environment where coworkers can safely rocket you through the above learning curve&quot;. This is %100 correct, but not everyone has the opportunity to work with people who can do that.<br /><br />I&#39;ve been working on embedded systems software for a long time and often faced problems for which solutions cannot be found on any book or on the web. So i really needed someone that could, &quot;rocket me through the above learning curve&quot;. But because of the country in i live, i wasn&#39;t able to find that &quot;someone&quot;. <br /><br />So what do you think, is it possible to be a &quot;master&quot; on your own? Does working on increasingly difficult tasks and effortful studying will work alone for obtaining the required number of chunks? :)Cihan Tekhttp://www.cihantek.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6800934446457898793.post-88748173821053447082009-10-16T20:19:55.843-04:002009-10-16T20:19:55.843-04:00This was a very interesting read! I must say I like your way of writing, the amount of references, the storytelling involved.<br />Being a beginning programmer (about a year of truly working on it) it really &quot;got to me&quot;.<br /><br />Personally I think the Edison part and the interview parts were very nice. The Edison part because it seemed that I bore myself when I&#39;m coasting, and always seek challenge (the FIRST thing I wanted to program was a program to chat with, it was way to hard in hindsight but I did it) and the interview part because it showed that me I would pass those tests!<br /><br />A great and motivational piece, congratulations.lodewijkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15474580989891369655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6800934446457898793.post-9994983185613007872009-01-02T19:09:00.000-05:002009-01-02T19:09:00.000-05:00anonymous: Great catch! Typo fixed :)<BR/><BR/>Thanks!Jeff Moserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074905903060665396noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6800934446457898793.post-49003434044028875782009-01-02T19:03:00.000-05:002009-01-02T19:03:00.000-05:00"the students' comments were moral general and diffuse"<BR/><BR/>This makes more sense as originally written: "more general and diffuse". :-)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6800934446457898793.post-66221446452834895702008-06-11T23:54:00.000-04:002008-06-11T23:54:00.000-04:00anonymous: Interesting connection to comics. You're right, a lot of the ideas span all domains (e.g. chess to programming to figure skating). Keep "focusing on the jumps" of comics :-) Thanks for stopping by.Jeff Moserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074905903060665396noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6800934446457898793.post-76841775656485094842008-06-11T15:31:00.000-04:002008-06-11T15:31:00.000-04:00i loved your article. and to be fair. i don't understand anything in coding or anything that has to do with programming. <BR/>but the idea you transmit about becoming a grandmaster works for everything. and it just gave me the push i needed. in fact i'm a comics student. so you could say that drawing isn't exactly coding. but still if you want to learn to draw. stick with what you can't draw and try to see new techniques, other styles and listen to grand master and you will improve.<BR/> i'm just lucky to have stumbled upon this page.<BR/><BR/>anyway a fantastic read. not just for programmers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6800934446457898793.post-69479917352685837372008-03-21T18:33:00.000-04:002008-03-21T18:33:00.000-04:00Anonymous: Thanks for the kind words. Let me know if improvements that you discover.<BR/><BR/>zhen: Thanks for the comment. "Tedious" is subjective, right? It can be frustrating at times, but you have to have the "motivation and temperament" as described in the second to last quote. There has to be an attraction to the field. This leads to have the child-like curiosity of asking "why?" and wanting to explore for fun. I believe that this is the start for what ultimately leads to passion for the field that drives you to want to improve.<BR/><BR/>One subtle way of developing the passion is look to the history of our field and see what motivated the people that made great improvements in the past 50+ years. I speak more on this in the next post. Does that answer your question at all?<BR/><BR/>Mike: Glad I helped you fall asleep :). Ten years is no magical number; it's all, like you said, about constant improvement. The question that I have to ask myself is what are my #2-#4 items on the "Four Stages of Competence," and perhaps more importantly, what do I need to do so that more of the #1's become at least #2. Any thoughts on that?<BR/><BR/>Lisa: The best thing to do is be a role model. With conscious focus, you can be a tremendous asset to helping the next wave like I mentioned.Jeff Moserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074905903060665396noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6800934446457898793.post-45323276055173832802008-03-18T23:13:00.000-04:002008-03-18T23:13:00.000-04:00Brilliant post. I can see myself passing on this post to new developers 10 years from now when I'm not so new.Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13539062417425067194noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6800934446457898793.post-81949199451045239252008-03-18T11:16:00.000-04:002008-03-18T11:16:00.000-04:00I couldn't sleep so I wandered down stairs to read a few blogs until I got sleepy. The insomnia really set-in after I read this blog as provoked thoughts raced through my mind. I thought about the things I had done right over the past ten years, the never ending quest to learn and discover. After ten years, I wouldn't classify myself as a grand master but I have earned myself the right to remain employed in a field that I truly enjoy while earning a decent living for my family.Mike Petryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00900707625184132791noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6800934446457898793.post-65783677464006658122008-03-18T01:50:00.000-04:002008-03-18T01:50:00.000-04:00I agreed with most you wrote till section about coding. I stooped reading carefully here. Sorry, but my first impression was that you are giving examples of bad code, where you actually presenting them as good code :D. However, latter on the section about hope, was the part I agree.<BR/>To clear my confusion I want to ask. Are you still developing, creating complex parts of software, or these days are gone long time ago?<BR/>Anyway it is nice and useful blog to read.Alfasnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6800934446457898793.post-54936096660570783002008-03-17T19:05:00.000-04:002008-03-17T19:05:00.000-04:00Great article! I won't waste any more words on how great it is, it's been said plenty...<BR/><BR/>One thing I'd like to know more about is, in those over 10 tedious years of conscious practice, what is it to motivate the future masters to move on in their unwavering determination?<BR/><BR/>You just briefly mentioned the notion of passion. Can you expand on that topic a little? Like the nature of passion; Can one develop his/her passion and so on. Maybe that deserves another post or two. <BR/><BR/>Thanks and looking forward to your new post!zhenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17844348145138631021noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6800934446457898793.post-27461492436299724982008-03-16T23:20:00.000-04:002008-03-16T23:20:00.000-04:00Fantastic article! Most relevant to many developers including myself. I forwarded this blog post to all my team members (first time in my career!); I plan to re-read, understand and implement the ideas and thoughts into my team's daily routine going forward.<BR/>Thanks for such great work!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6800934446457898793.post-91724818439355257202008-03-14T10:01:00.000-04:002008-03-14T10:01:00.000-04:00stephen: What do you mean by "Micro$oft dropped VB?" Are you talking about VB6? The reason is that Paul Vick and company are very much alive with VB.<BR/><BR/>What did you write the multithreading OS in? What was your scheduling algorithm?<BR/><BR/><BR/>tautologico: I've been quite interested in F# since college (~4 years). I've made a few references to it on this blog. My first encounter with it was when I was taking a compilers course that was using Standard ML. I thought F# would give me a debugger that SML didn't have. I didn't end up using F# then, but I've kept up a bit with what Don Syme and now Luke are doing with the language. I really like how it lets me use the neat attributes of ML and Scheme in .net. <BR/><BR/>Joe: Thanks!<BR/><BR/>Alwin Wong: Thanks for the comments and references. I think however that the Newton apple story isn't true. I think Voltaire made it up to make for a good story. <BR/><BR/>Brian: How would you apply that?Jeff Moserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074905903060665396noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6800934446457898793.post-57599976886206785462008-03-14T01:48:00.000-04:002008-03-14T01:48:00.000-04:00A Taoist may say<BR/><BR/>"Learn, then Unlearn.<BR/>Do then Non-Do"brianblog.jrdev.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6800934446457898793.post-41180125045531658542008-03-13T20:24:00.000-04:002008-03-13T20:24:00.000-04:00This is one of the great article I have ever read.<BR/>And I agree the approach that you gave to become grandmaster. <BR/>With the analogy of chess and golf player, you make the point very clearly, that we should not only focusing on our field but also learn from gurus from other field as well.<BR/>That is, the idea behind great invention. Newton learn gravitation from apple's tree, Wrights learn to construct plane from birds, and Michaelangelo can paint human very well because he learn anatomy!!<BR/>So certainly you got the point there....aylwin wongnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6800934446457898793.post-9180007427753184592008-03-13T17:12:00.000-04:002008-03-13T17:12:00.000-04:00One of the best articles I've ever read.<BR/><BR/>Well done!<BR/><BR/> - <A HREF="http://www.JoeLevi.com" REL="nofollow">www.JoeLevi.com</A>Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18349627725724500211noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6800934446457898793.post-67438766458657427652008-03-07T17:58:00.000-05:002008-03-07T17:58:00.000-05:00Very interesting article. I want to comment on something a little offtopic. You talk about C# and how it will be more about the whats and less about the how. Well, I think C# may get far absorbing features from functional programming languages, but it doesn't beat using a proper functional language. So, as you like .net, I'd like to suggest you take a look at F#, if you didn't already. It's a great language for the .NET platform.tautologicohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03658701069636639534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6800934446457898793.post-52699344525322917012008-03-06T19:06:00.000-05:002008-03-06T19:06:00.000-05:00Ten years to become competent? What does that mean for C#? Micro$oft dropped VB, and was the sole provider. What good is it to become competent, only to have the rug pulled from beneath you?<BR/><BR/>Early on, i was a polyglot. I considered myself fluent in 37 computer languages. But these days, inhaling another language isn't nearly so easy. Have i learned all the easy ones, and now have to painfully slog through the harder ones? Maybe. It may be that i was fluent at Hello World, but demand more these days.<BR/><BR/>On the other hand, back then, i wrote a multi-threading operating system... Maybe inhaling new languages stopped when my photographic memory became translucent.<BR/><BR/>For me, Hello World in BASIC to an operating system was 7 years, but could have been 5.<BR/><BR/>Great developers are NOT highly paid unless they're also great at something else.Stephenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03934169832326108710noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6800934446457898793.post-66254492855413829062008-03-05T20:40:00.000-05:002008-03-05T20:40:00.000-05:00Matt: What would you consider "painful" in Ruby? No language or platform is perfect. Perhaps look to see where C# beats Ruby as a way to stretch your understanding.<BR/><BR/>As for the Turkey Test, how does Ruby handle the same problems? The main thrust of that post was that regardless of programming language, you have to be aware of the issue.<BR/><BR/>I had to <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Io_%28programming_language%29" REL="nofollow">look up Io</A>. I hadn't heard of it before; interesting. I would highly encourage anyone to be at least aware of the interesting aspects of lots of languages: be it macros in Lisp to query expressions/comprehensions/LINQ in C# 3, it's helpful for understanding aspects of languages. It's sort of how someone begins to learn a lot about their own native tounge only when they study a "foreign" language. Koine Greek is highly inflected language (verb changes a lot depending on the subject) whereas English isn't so much. Lots of programming examples are like that. So, indeed, go for it. It can't hurt too much, especially if you're purposeful.<BR/><BR/>You might want to look at C# 3.0's use of lambdas and especially "Extension Methods" to see how can do Rails-esque things like "10.Days().Ago()" I admit though, not quite as elegant as Rails does it. However, there is a decent Ruby compiler coming (IronRuby) that will let you use Ruby code from C# and vice versa. At the very least it's interesting. For more Rails-ish stuff, look at the Boo language too.<BR/><BR/>Longwinded way to say do what you love, but make sure you don't discount things simply out of fear. That said, I could learn a lot from studying more of languages like Ruby and even more obscure ones like J. If you know you'll never like a job and are only doing it for the money, don't bother. You probably won't be happy.<BR/><BR/>"Anonymous", A4: Glad you liked it. Thanks for stopping by.Jeff Moserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074905903060665396noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6800934446457898793.post-43064263376676092822008-03-05T11:44:00.000-05:002008-03-05T11:44:00.000-05:00Great thought-provoking article, thank you!A4http://www.blogger.com/profile/00931331598441078625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6800934446457898793.post-53235362629052961282008-03-05T01:00:00.000-05:002008-03-05T01:00:00.000-05:00Excellent. Now I know where I stand, what to do and how to go.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com