

The Genius is in the Details  - brl
http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/smartabstractions

======
kcl
In the Gmail Genius vs Clueless Manager comparison, I think it's more apt to
say that the genius can traverse the tree and 'drill down' where necessary,
applying the most effective changes at the necessary level of detail. The
Clueless Manager is always stuck at the highest levels of abstraction, and he
can only work with very blunt objects. The point is that the largest gains can
sometimes come from optimizing disk-seek speeds, and being able to recognize
(and correct) this is an advantage over only being able to talk about
performance in generalized terms.

~~~
henning
Yeah. Thinking too detailed too early on would be a mistake, too. Thinking
about disk heads when you have no idea what the interface will look like is a
huge mistake to me.

I don't think web developers have to think about disk I/O unless they're
Google or Yahoo.

~~~
bootload
_"... I don't think web developers have to think about disk I/O unless they're
Google or Yahoo. ..."_

I'm not sure about this.

For _"any"_ interactive Webapp, speed is important. If you have repeated
queries to/from, DB I/O does come into the picture when peak loads occur. So
right when you get lots of users, the site will be hit. I've seen this with
e-commerce (where user speed == $$$) where sure enough every peak time the
server(s) would begin to grind. Remember your max speed will be determined by
bandwidth. DB I/O will have some effect to slow response times. Maybe not as
much as bandwidth but it is still something you must consider. Not every site
is as extreme as e-commerce but the idea is still valid.

 _"... Every Web usability study I have conducted since 1994 has shown the
same thing: users beg us to speed up page downloads ..."_ ~
<http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9703a.html>

Why is it important? Well user perception is one.

user: _"Gee your application is slow compared to google, a bit slower than
amazon"_

developer: _"But google invests squillions in hardware, network connections .
Their applications run in memory. My apps run on fast hardware, I optomise for
small pages ...."_

user: _"... So, it still appears slow"_

If a user thinks your site is slow (and if you subscribe to the idea that you
are creating web applications as apposed to documents) you need to keep your
response times as close as possible to applications that people use every day.

It doesn't help that developers constantly throwing new (unoptomised)
techniques to do new things at the same time larger sites are optomising to
improve their load times, making comparisons between load times inevitable ~
<http://developer.yahoo.net/blog/archives/performance/>

------
bluishgreen
Street fighters tend to be very good at details (street fighters as in people
who never had formal training but kick ass). While dojo masters tend to be
good in abstractions (not necessarily the useful kind). I think a good
definition of a hacker is one who is good at both. I came from a dojo and got
my ass kicked several times by a few street fighters. Since then I am learning
the art of abstractions for details sake and not for its own sake.

------
brlewis
Details matter, but when he says the smartest people disdain abstractions, I
think he's off. The smartest people talk about certain selected details a lot.
Other details are appropriately abstracted.

------
ntoshev
It's a good observation. Smart people also tend to focus on the places where
one layer of abstraction leaks to the next.

------
aston
I don't think abstraction is even the right concept to be talking about here.
Being able to work with an abstraction doesn't imply ignorance of the details,
and ultimately the best code comes from people who know how to make
abstractions that are elegant and aren't leaky (which takes expertise in both
domains).

------
richcollins
I'm not sure I agree with Aaron's implicit definition of genius (one who has a
deep understanding of the details of things). I prefer to define genius as one
who fundamentally changes the way we think about the field in which is genius
operates.

By this definition, a genius can have an incredible talent for a field without
having deconstructed the way their talent comes into being. They work on
intuition. It is up to the people the follow them to figure out how they did
it.

------
edw519
The system was down, costing the owner $10,000 per hour. No one could get it
back up.

A "genius" was consulted, and after snooping around for a few minutes, logged
in, and changed one byte. Everything worked perfectly.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" said the owner, "Give me a bill."

The bill was $10,000.

"I can't pay this bill until it's itemized," said the owner."

No problem - Changing the byte: $1. Knowing which byte to change: $9999.

Genius is: a) Understanding that focus MUST be directed exactly where it's
needed, b) Being willing to do it, and c) Being able to do it no matter where
it is.

~~~
mhb
The real story
([http://nostalgia.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Proteus_Steinmet...](http://nostalgia.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Proteus_Steinmetz)):

    
    
        In the early years of this century, Steinmetz was brought to General 
        Electric's facilities in Schenectady, New York. GE had encountered a 
        performance problem with one of their huge electrical generators and had 
        been absolutely unable to correct it. Steinmetz, a genius in his 
        understanding of electromagnetic phenomena, was brought in as a consultant 
        -- not a very common occurrence in those days, as it would be now.
    
        Steinmetz also found the problem difficult to diagnose, but for some days 
        he closeted himself with the generator, its engineering drawings, paper and 
        pencil. At the end of this period, he emerged, confident that he knew how 
        to correct the problem.
    
        After he departed, GE's engineers found a large "X" marked with chalk on 
        the side of the generator casing. There also was a note instructing them to 
        cut the casing open at that location and remove so many turns of wire from 
        the stator. The generator would then function properly.
    
        And indeed it did.
    
        Steinmetz was asked what his fee would be. Having no idea in the world what 
        was appropriate, he replied with the absolutely unheard of answer that his 
        fee was $1000.
    
        Stunned, the GE bureaucracy then required him to submit a formally itemized 
        invoice.
    
        They soon received it. It included two items:
    
            1. Marking chalk "X" on side of generator: $1.
            2. Knowing where to mark chalk "X": $999.
    

~~~
paulgb
Smells like an urban legend. Sure enough, snopes has it:
<http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/where.asp>

(Sorry in advance for those nasty pop-ups. Disable javascript if you have that
luxury.)

------
lst
Same for real artists. It's always the details which make the difference. And
the reason is very clear: the details are the really delicate part (and the
most difficult to grasp).

For someone, all sunsets are equal, and for some other one, every single one
is a unique miracle.

