Programming is not important - FunFunFunction #14
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- Опубліковано 20 сер 2024
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I often forget that programming is not what is important, solving problems for people is what's important.
I think that we, as an industry, could give a little more love to programmers that are very productive at making real things, things that are NOT just programming tooling. I think that a great example of such a programmer is Jonathan Blow. He's the creator of Braid, which is a fantastic game, but more importantly, he made Braid almost entierly by himself in three years, and that is amazingly productive considering the quality and scope of the game. Jonathan Blow is definitely a person that does something right when it comes to producing software. I've referred to this video before, but you should really, really, really watch his talk "How to program independent games" ( • Jonathan Blow - How to... ) He think about programming in a pretty different way and made me question a lot of assumptions that I had about programming.
Try to be more excited about the problem that you're solving than about your craft - your craft is just a tool.
Thanks for bringing this up! Last year the JavaScript/node.js community has been busy building lots of (innovative!) tools. This has brought a lot of good. But now we're at a point where it's growing above our heads (google for "javascript fatigue"). It's no longer *fun* to start a new JavaScript project, as you first have to spend a lot of time and frustration getting it set up (and no, boilerplates are no real solution). I really hope 2016 will be the year where we sort this out and can focus again on solving actual problems rather than struggling with tooling.
+Jos de Jong Thanks Jos. But that is not at all what I want to get at. I really hate the "javascript fatigue" posts and think they are horribly whiney.
+mpjme Ha ha sorry, that's true - whining about the tools getting too complicated and changing too rapidly is exactly what you point out we should *stop* doing, and we should focus on solving *real problems* instead.
Well, you can still do this, even inside this situation. You are the one that needs to specialize on a specific set of tools and be very good at them. Then, we let the new frameworks to study time and, with enough confidence, we adopt them.
I spent 2 years in Stockholm for my masters. And you mate, are the kind of people that i mostly liked there. Openminded and knowledge "sharer". Just thank you.
Send me some of that snow, PLEASE!
Seriously, wherever you are walking in this video, it's beautiful. I love the snow, but I live in Israel, so I'm pretty much screwed in that regard.
What you were saying was interesting too, but I just couldn't ignore all that marvelous snow.
Not only was that interesting, I very much enjoyed seeing Sweden in the
winter. I sure miss seeing snow. I like that you try doing different
things with your videos.
I enjoy watching Casey's vlogs as well. FunFunFunction is also great to watch, thanks for making it.
I love this sentiment, so many developers get hung up on whether they're adhering to best practices, using the absolute best, bleeding edge tools etc, when they could just get down and solve the problem in 1/2 the time and never have to think about it again. As you say, tooling and best practice are important, but they're not as important as solving the problem!
couldn't agree more. I feel the same way. I am all for tools to help developers but I'm certainly a developer who is focused on problems people face in the every day, not on making making development life 'easier' per se
I feel I am just as bad at this. As developers, when we feel pain, we feel compelled to fix that pain. A large percentage of the time, the hours used to fix that minor pain would have been better used solving the problem that we are being paid to fix. Thanks for doing a video on this topic. Hopefully it triggers in my mind the next time I feel like I am optimizing my process by spending hours developing a new one-off tool.
Excellent video! I like this "kind" of videos where you talk about profesional programming, and not just teach "new functional stuff". Thank you!
Also, congrats on +12k subscribers! When I subscribed you just over 1.5k, I'm glad to see that people is following you, because your videos are really excellent and should be watch be every developer!
+Fabio Hugo Martinez Thanks for sticking with the show, Fabio, and glad you like the format, because I bought a new camera this week specifically for it. :) Excited to try it for mondays video!
Perfect topic! it is hard to keep focus on your idea, and make all decisions around it, but as a programmer I think that we tend to optimize on places where it is not needed, either in code, workflow, tools, email tagging, etc... always thinking into the future when we have't even tried just going for it, and Casey is efficiency on steroids!!
I 100% agree with this talk and I'm the same way (spend many hours trying to find the *best* way to do something instead of just doing it the way I know how to). That being said, it's super ironic that Jonathan Blow is the main example of someone who doesn't do this but Jonathan Blow has spent a lot of time the last few years creating a new programming language because he finds C++ lacking.
I don't know if this is just a trap that we will forever be falling into or there really is something to this almost universal intuition that the tools aren't good enough yet.
excellent video!, I'm glad others feel the same towards all these tools that somehow are getting glorified instead of keeping the main focus on solving problems as you mentioned.
Some interesting advice! I often find that I am way too invested in the tools that I use and can spend hours glancing through the documentation of different projects without actually getting anything done.
I love programmers who doesn't get inspired by other programmers! This is thinking outside the box. :) Great vid. Thank you.
Definitely one of your best videos.
This is a very interesting and necessary discussion. It is funny how the dev community became more interested in creating tooling for themselves than actually building value for whatever organization they're working.
I think great developpers spend time on tooling because their care about having a fun environment to work with...
really surprised how shooting outdoor gives a different perspective on you.
Thanks for putting great words around what I've been feeling for a long time.
As one of the many fans of your channel, I want to tell you that you're awesome and I thoroughly enjoy your videos!
+David Ostler As one of your many comment readers, I want to tell you that you are awesome and I very much enjoy your comments!
Great insight! I feel as though developers are/ have been creating tools and various tooling processes to make development even faster OR solving some minor issue that another fancy tool we've all just learned may have. Don't get me started on CSS frameworks...
This really can become daunting for new developers (like myself) who are learning to code using the fundamentals. After they master the basics, where do they go from there? Should they be using x-technology instead of y when coding the components of a web app? I've seen a lot of new devs quit coding just because of this frustration, which is not good at all.
In such a fast-paced industry where things are always changing, we should begin to put more focus on problem solving (in a design aspect) rather than in optimizing our tools to streamline the development process. I mean, imagine seeing different mechanics working on the same automobile buying new/ extravagant tools to find a faster way to change the oil in a Toyota Camry. Necessary? Perhaps if you're trying to wrangle in as many clients in a certain amount of time. Speed over purpose?
Don't get me wrong, innovation is exciting and necessary (in most cases). But in this industry, we should put a cap on what different technologies are vital for solving such issues when it comes to making a robust product for ourselves and for others as well.
I just saw the Jonathan Bow video and now i understand how many hours i have wasted in trying to optimize my code. It happened to the extend that i created subprojects to deal with the requirements of my original project. This makes me question the whole paradigm of Object Oriented programming and to what extend is it useful.
I've been following substack and he opened up new doors in my thinking in a similar way, and he's very innovative
I smiled when you said you have a "mancrush" on Casey Neistat, I am obsessed with his UA-cam channel as well.
Hi, I think there is a montage mistake here, the same segment about Johatan Bow comes twice in the video.
I just love how freaking awesome this dude is. Can't quite put my finger on it, but he's just super fascinating. :D
This guy is awesome
You mentioned you worked at Blackberry in one of your videos. Any chance that was at the office in Waterloo?
Interesting perspective :), thanks for sharing!
Amazing stuff bro..keep up amazing work. Dude your setup is amazingly crisp...Throw me some tidbits how you are making these vids like "Streams - FunFunFunction #13"...I just invested in a new iMac so I have great starting base....
It's a very standard youtuber setup. Midrange DSLR, softboxes, a blue yeti mic, block-out roller blinds to keep lighting even during shoot. For recording I just use QuickTime, and for editing I use Final Cut Pro x. For shooting this video I just used an iPhone 6S plus.
+mpjme Nice dude..thnx
+mpjme Nice dude..thnx
+mpjme nice dude..thnx
Always is a real jow see your week show. @Mpjme, sometimes when you point at "the screen" to show us the link (for example, in this video, you wanna show us the video from the Jonathan Blow), the link or image with link, doens't appear. I dont't know if this happen with orthers.
Solving problems is what ails the world..I don't see many people solving problems. Small or big I just don't see it....
Lol, as a subscriber to Sexplanations, your closing line always throws me off balance :D
You just made my girlfriend laugh. Not many web vloggers do this. Congratulations 👍
OMG, this video perfectly encapsulates the bane of my productivity!
Thank you for a good Monday morning breakfast. Now off to solve some problems! :)
Too late for me :c I guess I'll rewatch the video tomorrow morning...
Awesome.
buena reflexión bro
What camera did you use today?
btw, awesome content!
Just iPhone 5s, no external mic. This was a bit of a validation of the format, looking at getting a Canon G7X in case I want to do more of these.
I mean 6S, sorry.
+mpjme No matter what camera gonna be, the content is still more important, right?
Hey, MPJ! Please, can you give me an advice?
I've started to learn JavaScript, but in general I've learned programming for the last year. But I don't feel like I made much progress. I still watch tutorials and solve problems at codewars. I don't have any idea about "real life" project. So, can you tell me, how can I improve my skills and reach new heights?
Open source projects maybe? Start forking the source code of tools you use, it's a great way of learning. Good luck
Hah, I love Casey! Watch him daily!
i'm not sure, if you know deep theory most problems comes to be trivial
programming games are awesome! Better than webforms
I will watch this video after I finish writing this Chrome extension. This way it will load 70 milliseconds faster! ;)
jesus christ you're crazy, keep up the videos :))
I bet your couldn't move your hand for half an hour after you finished :)
+Goran Udosic Correct!