

Fabrice Bellard: Portrait of a superproductive programmer - d_r
http://www.softwarequalityconnection.com/2011/03/fabrice_bellard_portrait_of_a_superproductive_programmer/

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PaulHoule
This article proves my thesis about superproductive programmers: that they (i)
don't write user interface code and (ii) don't work for non-programmers. A
third advantage he has is that he's largely working alone or in small
volunteer teams.

A major source of "unproductivity" for applications programmers is rework. A
lot of rework comes from poor specifications and from the essential difficulty
of creating user interfaces. To get usable user interfaces it's generally
necessary to try a number of things that don't work. You certainly can build
one prototype, set a stingy budget, and timebox it, but odds aren't good that
real people will actually stick with the product.

Another issue in commercial applications development is the NNPP's (Net
Negative Productivity Programmers.) You'll have one on your "team" or you'll
be maintaining code written by one. Either way, they'll sap your productivity.

Adding up these unproductivity factors you can find 80% of your time
disappearing... And that this point it doesn't matter if you're a genius or an
NNPP yourself... You're not getting much done.

Of all the programs, only QEmacs has a substantial user interface. And in that
case, the user interface was largely specified in advance -- the folks at MIT
did a great front-loaded job of user interface design for emacs and we've
accumulated a huge amount of experience with emacs-derived.

A lot of programmers are intimidated by math-heavy systems programming, but
once you get over the hump, it's easy to be productive. In projects like
linmodem you're certainly going to have to deal with BS from hardware vendors,
but it's nothing like applications programming.

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gkoberger
I was a bit disappointed that the article didn't really say much that you
couldn't grok from glancing at his Wikipedia article and reading something
like The Mythical Man-Month. I was hoping to learn more about him-- how does
he separate his work and personal life? How does he make money? What are his
goals? How does he focus?

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blumentopf
He keeps his life under wraps: No twitter, no facebook, publishes code under
pseudonyms and declines interview requests.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that his day job is at french SIGINT.

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blumentopf
Lovely picture: Body language speaks volumes.

The modest Bellard next to the über self-confident de Icaza. Guess who owns my
sympathies.

~~~
mberning
I'm curious, if you knew nothing of the two men in the picture would you draw
such strong conclusions.

Body language accounts for a lot, but don't put too much stock in a simple
snapshot.

