

Hard work and practice in Programming - aditya
http://radar.oreilly.com/2008/12/hard-work-and-practice-in-programming.html

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tokenadult
A lot of mathematicians who think about how to practice to become better
mathematicians draw a distinction between exercises and problems. Both are
important, but problems are especially important.

"It is perhaps pertinent to make a comment or two here about the problems of
the text. There is a distinction between what may be called a PROBLEM and what
may be considered an EXERCISE. The latter serves to drill a student in some
technique or procedure, and requires little, if any, original thought. Thus,
after a student beginning algebra has encountered the quadratic formula, he
should undoubtedly be given a set of exercises in the form of specific
quadratic equations to be solved by the newly acquired tool. The working of
these exercises will help clinch his grasp of the formula and will assure his
ability to use the formula. An exercise, then, can always be done with
reasonable dispatch and with a minimum of creative thinking. In contrast to an
exercise, a problem, if it is a good one for its level, should require thought
on the part of the student. The student must devise strategic attacks, some of
which may fail, others of which may partially or completely carry him through.
He may need to look up some procedure or some associated material in texts, so
that he can push his plan through. Having successfully solved a problem, the
student should consider it to see if he can devise a different and perhaps
better solution. He should look for further deductions, generalizations,
applications, and allied results. In short, he should live with the thing for
a time, and examine it carefully in all lights. To be suitable, a problem must
be such that the student cannot solve it immediately. One does not complain
about a problem being too difficult, but rather too easy."

"It is impossible to overstate the importance of problems in mathematics. It
is by means of of problems that mathematics develops and actually lifts itself
by its own bootstraps. Every research article, every doctoral thesis, every
new discovery in mathematics, results from an attempt to solve some problem.
The posing of appropriate problems, then, appears to be a very suitable way to
introduce the student to mathematical research. And it is worth noting, the
more problems one plays with, the more problems one may be able to pose on
one's own. The ability to propose significant problems is one requirement to
be a creative mathematician."

Eves, Howard (1963). A Survey of Geometry volume 1. Boston: Allyn and Bacon,
page ix.

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lutorm
Agree, the absence of authentic problem solving training is severe. Rote
learning and practice, even if it's how to solve standard mathematical
problems, give you tools with which to proceed but do little to actually teach
metacognitive problem solving skills.

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wallflower
My friend and his son both enjoy AoPS: <http://www.artofproblemsolving.com>

>Is math class too easy for you? Looking for a greater challenge? You've come
to the right place.

My friend laments something like it was _not_ around when he was in grade
school (in the Bitnet/Compuserve days, ha!)

~~~
tokenadult
Yes, the Art of Problem Solving web forum is a very good resource, and there
are other great resources available via the main Art of Problem Solving site.

P.S. AoPS is where I first took on my screen name.

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magoghm
Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years <http://norvig.com/21-days.html> by
Peter Norvig

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DenisM
It's 5349 words and the first half says "practice makes perfect and therefore
one should practice a lot". I couldn't bring myself to read the second half.
Maybe they should practice writing, so that this stuff is more readable.

~~~
tokenadult
As Sheridan wrote,

You write with ease, to show your breeding; But easy writing's vile hard
reading.

This, by the way, is why I still prefer to read The Economist and Skeptic and
other magazines to reading blogs on the same subjects. More learning for less
of my reading time, because the writing has been subjected to editing.

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Hexstream
"Jennie is a natural on computers - she [...] has reached a point where she's
gaming the cheat codes in Sims, without really realizing that she's actually
using the programmer's interface into the program and beginning to learn LUA."

 _Cuuute!_

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jodrellblank
So surely everybody should be good at "thinking", since everyone who has been
alive long enough has been "thinking" for 10,000 hours...

I find it a bit miserable though - how can you head into something knowing
that it will take a decade of focused practise to be good at it? It's a bit
intimidating, and limiting - how many decades do you have left? Wouldn't want
to waste them on something not worth it, eh?

~~~
tokenadult
Quotation dictionaries turn up several versions of a quotation along the lines
of "It's amazing what people will do to avoid the hard work of thinking." Most
mental reverie is nothing like the "deliberate practice" K. Anders Ericsson
researches and writes about.

[http://www.psy.fsu.edu/faculty/ericsson/ericsson.exp.perf.ht...](http://www.psy.fsu.edu/faculty/ericsson/ericsson.exp.perf.html)

Another quotation that I've tried to dig up and verify, but have never been
able to find a primary source for, is "Because thinking is the easiest of all
things to do, it is the hardest thing to do well." Great thought. I would be
very much in the debt of any reader who can help me attribute it to its
original author.

As for the danger of misplacing the decade of deliberate practice on the wrong
discipline, I advise my children to get to know a lot of different adults, the
better to choose a passion to pursue that they really like well enough to
devote practice to and become good at. And I think if people learn to truly
reach an expert level in something, they can find personal satisfaction and
reasonable income doing it. There are a lot of journeymen, but few genuine
experts.

~~~
gruseom
<http://www.google.com/search?q=thinking+hardest> yields the following
attributed to Henry Ford:

"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason why so
few engage in it."

It's reminiscent of your quote, though probably not close enough.

As an aside, I'm skeptical that Henry Ford actually said this.

