You've been told software engineers "write code."
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You've been told software engineers "write code." But it's not true.
If I—a bog standard average software engineer—were to screen record myself "writing code", and then play it back for you.
You'd notice something.
I do barely any typing. I'm switching between files, repositories, documentation, tabs, terminals, IDE tabs. What am I doing?
I'm trying to bring it altogether in my head. That's where the action actually happens first before it makes it out of my fingers.
1/
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You've been told software engineers "write code." But it's not true.
If I—a bog standard average software engineer—were to screen record myself "writing code", and then play it back for you.
You'd notice something.
I do barely any typing. I'm switching between files, repositories, documentation, tabs, terminals, IDE tabs. What am I doing?
I'm trying to bring it altogether in my head. That's where the action actually happens first before it makes it out of my fingers.
1/
The more I need to bring it altogether, the more costly it is. Every context switch is a walk across campus. Every unfamiliar framework is a new set of tools to pick up.
Even with agents, it still costs you, because it still needs to make sense in your head what's going on.
So software engineers don't really write code per se. Typing of it out is just the end step.
2/
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The more I need to bring it altogether, the more costly it is. Every context switch is a walk across campus. Every unfamiliar framework is a new set of tools to pick up.
Even with agents, it still costs you, because it still needs to make sense in your head what's going on.
So software engineers don't really write code per se. Typing of it out is just the end step.
2/
@raiderrobert I remember once sitting in silence, arms crossed, looking at the screen for almost an hour.
People said I looked awake but seemed to be doing nothing; I was doing the whole thing in my head, visualizing the code with its libraries, structure, variables, etc.
When I started typing, I wouldn't stop for a couple hours.I don't work as a programmer anymore cause it was absolutely devastating mentally speaking but I couldn't sleep cause my body wasn't tired.
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The more I need to bring it altogether, the more costly it is. Every context switch is a walk across campus. Every unfamiliar framework is a new set of tools to pick up.
Even with agents, it still costs you, because it still needs to make sense in your head what's going on.
So software engineers don't really write code per se. Typing of it out is just the end step.
2/
@raiderrobert I remember a podcast episode I recorded some time back discussing how IT management views programmers:
A C-level exec is walking around the IT shop floor and notices there's one guy leaning back in his chair, apparently deep in thought, rocking back and forth occasionally.
The exec calls over one of the IT team leads and demands to know why the guy isn't working:
"He's not even TYPING anything!"
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@raiderrobert I remember once sitting in silence, arms crossed, looking at the screen for almost an hour.
People said I looked awake but seemed to be doing nothing; I was doing the whole thing in my head, visualizing the code with its libraries, structure, variables, etc.
When I started typing, I wouldn't stop for a couple hours.I don't work as a programmer anymore cause it was absolutely devastating mentally speaking but I couldn't sleep cause my body wasn't tired.
@Johns_priv I have absolutely had that exhausted but can't sleep experience over and over again.
My eventual solution was to just start walking a lot more.
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You've been told software engineers "write code." But it's not true.
If I—a bog standard average software engineer—were to screen record myself "writing code", and then play it back for you.
You'd notice something.
I do barely any typing. I'm switching between files, repositories, documentation, tabs, terminals, IDE tabs. What am I doing?
I'm trying to bring it altogether in my head. That's where the action actually happens first before it makes it out of my fingers.
1/
@raiderrobert Exactly, I’ve always hated the term coder / programmer for sounding like typist. I studied and practice engineering
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