
Code by Heart – Write better code by imagining it first - kindofone
https://medium.com/@kindofone/code-by-heart-e58092c1f250
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spooningtamarin
This is just some nicely worded problem solving methodology.

There's no mind of an artist (by this I think author meant creative, but not
logical).

You have a problem. You'll solve it using programming. Yes, there exists a
problem solving methodology, and yes, it means you might put your pencil aside
and think.

But it's much better to use very well written methodologies of problem solving
instead of trying to come up with your mumbojumbobehappyifitworks.

Methodology is logical, it's an algorithm for problem solving that works
really well on simple problems. On more complicated ones it helps you get
closer to the solution but when all of the methods were tried then there's
that creative jump you have to make, by either solving it after thinking
(employing creativity) or inventing new methods that will bring you even
closer to the solution (employing creativity, again).

It's quite easy for programmers to incorporate problem solving methodologies
in their workflow because most of the time their problem can be defined in
some way.

On the other hand, a painter, a musician, a writer, their problems are hardly
defined if not non-existent. That's why it's hard to self-evaluate, it's hard
to see if you are making any progress, and then when something successfully
mainstream happens we cherish their remarkable creativity.

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vijayr
Couple of years ago, someone from HN was trying to improve their imagination
skills, based on the life of Nikola Tesla. Not sure what happened to that
experiment. Anyone knows?

~~~
krazemon
I believe the person doing this was ztratar. If you go to the original post
([http://www.zachtratar.com/tesla.html#.VjbLMY9Viko](http://www.zachtratar.com/tesla.html#.VjbLMY9Viko))
and look at the comments, you'll see he posted a 1-year update. It sounds like
he got good results but found the result not worth the effort. If anyone's
interested in potentially continuing with this experiment, please PM me. This
is something i'm quite interested in.

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abro
Exactly this is what i did and loved all my life.

But since i moved from home office to a 'normal' company with a 'normal'
office, this doesn't work for me anymore. Getting into the zone is impossible
in such environments, at least for me and many devs i know.

~~~
kindofone
Yep. Especially open work spaces. I constantly see employees looking for their
center, trying to focus, but it's a hard task for sure. I appreciate companies
that create focus rooms, for just one person, and encourages employees to get
some concentration there.

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krazemon
This is something I've been thinking about for a while. However, I approach it
from the perspective of "Can we come up with a way that we can combine coding
with meditation?"

I'd like something similar to soroban where coding can act as an entirely
mental activity. My fascination with terse languages like J and K arise from
this same ideal, being able to code only in your head.

I'd be curious to hear other people's thoughts on the desirability or
feasibility of some form of algorithms or coding done entirely mentally, as I
haven't discussed this with anyone to date.

~~~
RodgerTheGreat
I've always enjoyed going for a walk to ponder problems, and then coming back
to my desk to "pour out" a solution I have in my head. Sometimes it works
right the first time, and other times the process of making everything more
explicit and typing it out reveals blind spots in my original thinking.

I started learning K nearly a year ago, and I've found it's much more amenable
to coding in my head. Programs work on the first try more frequently. Very
satisfying, once you get used to its primitives.

