
Practicing Programming (Steve Yegge) - bootload
http://steve.yegge.googlepages.com/practicing-programming
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jwecker
I enjoyed the article but I kept waiting for him to get to the part where you
really practice. I was disappointed right at the beginning that he combined
study and practice into one concept called practice and then pretty much all
of his drills were about studying. The truth is I think most programmers,
especially good ones, are self-made, which implies also that they most
certainly know how to step outside of their comfort zone and study- sometimes
compulsively.

On the other hand, you really don't see a lot of programmers who practice (the
real definition, not Steve's)- and I was excited that he was going to write
about something I've been thinking a lot about but he never did.

Here's a real example of programming practice- establish a baseline and then
repeat the coding exercise from scratch until you feel like you could code it
with your eyes closed. Like that FizzBuzz program from the post a few days
back that a bunch of us spontaneously coded- erase what you did and code it
again. Figure out how to write it in lisp, then erase your code, time
yourself, code it again.

If it sounds silly, actually try it- you really do gain something. Time
yourself going through the vim tutorial (if you're not already a master)- do
every single example 2x- and try to beat your time later. That's real
practice, rarely practiced.

