

Ask HN: Is it true good programmers are "lazy"? - mcartyem


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CyberFonic
I had a CS lecturer who said something along those lines.

What he meant is that lazy programmers will make the effort in the short term
to make their work more accurate (as in meeting the requirements), more bug-
free, more robust and more scalable in the long term. So over time they end up
doing less work and far less drudge work. So he was talking about a rather
creative form of laziness.

Some of the useful techniques I learnt were like writing scripts to automate
tedious steps. Writing macros to render the code clearer. Writing small DSLs
(mostly a *nix concept) to raise the levels of abstraction to better align
with the domain.

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tjr226
Yes, but in a more holistic way than we normally use the word.

Good programmers will minimize the time they spend over the lifetime of a
project. This is why you don't optimize prematurely, to avoid wasting time
when you already have a solution that is good enough. However, the same
programmer will then be diligent about writing modular, easy-to-read code, so
that editing and refactoring will be as simple as possible.

Relevant - <http://paulgraham.com/goodart.html>

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orangethirty
No. I work a lot, but I make sure to automate a lot of work. Basically, just
automate what you can, look for ways to automate what you can't, and keep
working towards automating everything. :)

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alid
The best programmers are quick, efficient and clean. Work smart not hard I
say. There's a great Tim Ferriss quote: 'Being busy is a form of laziness -
lazy thinking and indiscriminate action.'

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se85
Lazy is never a word I would associate with someone who is motivated enough to
be a good programmer in the first place.

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gusman
The best programmers are lazy, because they spent a lot of time on their life
thinking how they could automate things.

They don't just accept how algoritms from life are. They think how they could
improve all the time, that is more than a normal programmer will think just
while in the work in optimization

