Comments on: Refocus on the Basics

By: Swaroop

Swaroop — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 05:09:20 +0000

@Karthick “Calendar sorts” – what’s that? … Writing a non-programming book, isn’t that sort of defeating the thing I was talking about in this post?

By: Karthick

Karthick — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 03:22:36 +0000

No more blog reading? nooooooooo. Haha seriously though, I think this is a good step, you could plan up a calendar sorts. You should also write books about non programming stuff ideals like 37 Signals’ Get Real. I think those were one of the best reads targetted at both non and programming related people.

By: Swaroop

Swaroop — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:30:57 +0000

@Strider : We have similar experiences there. And yes, you gotta code. An element that I’m working on.

@Mr.Purple : Oh, there is nothing wrong with that. It’s just a matter of priorities. My priorities have now changed. As long as the reading is beneficial and is your conscious priority (not just a compulsion), it is perfectly okay.

@Sridhar : All the best to you too!

By: srid

srid — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:29:28 +0000

Hey Swaroop,

Let us know how it goes. I am in the same boat - wanting to get back to some serious programming and cease becoming a lazy rut.

Good luck!

By: Mr. Purple

Mr. Purple — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 20:04:41 +0000

I do agree with you on most of the points. But I feel in today’s world there’s no problem in being the jack of all trades. Going to “news” sites and seeing something on the link you follow might actually give you an idea for a product or may help you have a different approach on a feature you were working on for the past 3 weeks. “Narrowness of experience will lead to narrowness of imagination” according to Rob Pike. Programming isn’t only about using your theoretical knowledge to the fullest, it’s also about having multiple approaches towards a problem. Don’t get me wrong, it is important to get your basics right first, but it is also important to have the right tool-set and keep adding to it. All the stuff around us can be related if we try to make sense out of it.

By: Strider

Strider — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 11:47:59 +0000

I understand exactly what is happening. This is something that has been happening to me for some time now. I go to sites like reddit.com and news.ycombinator to see the hip new stuffs, but end up just glancing through a lot of different useless things and waste time. I am a big PG fan, and found this(http://www.paulgraham.com/distraction.html) essay useful and was happy to know that even the successful have/had a (lot of) distractions.

I guess the best thing to do is probably just give up the internet for a few days, except the mail. And, read a lot of good books. I am currently reading Code Complete which is pretty awesome. And, ofcourse, the other big factor is coding. You've gotta code everyday and try to build cool stuffs.

And, yes, I found your Python and vi books pretty useful. Thanks and good luck.