

Teaching code optimization to 11-year-old son. - robg
http://carymillsap.blogspot.com/2009/06/profiling-with-my-boy.html

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nir
I don't know, isn't 11 year old a bit premature for optimization? (sorry, I
had to :))

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patio11
On the plus side, since it appears that he understands that you don't optimize
the thing that takes 2 ms (application code) while there are things taking 200
ms (database roundtrip) or 700 ms (page rendering), he is probably better at
optimization than half of the professional engineers I know.

God save me from one more code review where somebody made a for loop over
months in the freaking year an obtuse nightmare because they had (mostly
wrong!) ideas about how they could shave off a few _processor cycles_ twelve
whole times. (Inline functions for extra speedup! Forget standard math
operators, lets twittle bits! Business objects are for wimps, we'll stick
everything in one String -> String hash table and compose the keys with
inlined uncommented StringBuilder monstrosities!)

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aristus
At that age my dad was teaching me and my siblings circuit debugging and my
mom was teaching us programming on CP/M. Valuable stuff. If anyone thinks this
is "too advanced", I respectfully suggest that this stuff is just too new to
be mainlined into the traditional curriculum. Process analysis is as powerful,
simple and vital as any chemistry or maths.

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J_McQuade
When I was 11 years old, my dad taught me to be a goalkeeper. I've now not
touched a football since I was 15.

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mahmud
OT:

When I was 11, my father fled overseas and I carried a pseudonym, and a rifle
almost as tall as me:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAR-80>

(any other civil war children on HN?)

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pmichaud
Programming, and analysis is tremendously valuable skill for a kid this age to
start learning. I've been gently bringing this sort of thing up to my kids
since they were old enough to understand the words I was using.

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biotech
It's interesting to hear about what people's dad's taught them when they were
11 years old. So far, I've got:

robg's son - Code optimization (result pending)

aristus - Circuit debugging (turned out to be very useful)

J_McQuade - How to tend goal (skill no longer applicable)

biotech - World geography and history (good to know in social situations; I
work with, and live near, people from all over the world)

Anyone else?

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pbhjpbhj
My dad taught me he wasn't afraid to kick me in the ass (actually) if I
stepped out of line (figuratively). It was actually a useful lesson and helped
me to reconsider my attitude to others and stop being a dick.

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geeko
Looking forward to teaching my kid this kind of stuff as well. But it will
take about another 15 years until he turns 11.

