Links

The Duct Tape Programmer

joelonsoftware.com

He is the guy you want on your team building go-carts, because he has two favorite tools: duct tape and WD-40. And he will wield them elegantly even as your go-cart is careening down the hill at a mile a minute. This will happen while other programmers are still at the starting line arguing over whether to use titanium or some kind of space-age composite material that Boeing is using in the 787 Dreamliner.

When you are done, you might have a messy go-cart, but it’ll sure as hell fly.

I like this, especially because I like to think that this the mindset that I’ve repeatedly brought to the startups I’ve helped succeed over the years. I make things that work, as simply as possible, without bells & whistles, easy to approach and to iterate on. But they work out of the gate, blending things that maybe haven’t been combined yet. They show the possible and lay the foundation for a project’s future.

The Brain-Activity of People Coding Is Different

shapeof.com

From the study:

The researchers saw little to no response to code in the language regions of the brain. Instead, they found that the coding task mainly activated the so-called multiple demand network. This network, whose activity is spread throughout the frontal and parietal lobes of the brain, is typically recruited for tasks that require holding many pieces of information in mind at once, and is responsible for our ability to perform a wide variety of mental tasks.

I’ve long thought programming is to a great extent about organizational skill, especially when it comes to larger projects.

I agree. This is one thing that I’m finding is a big benefit in hardware work, where the hardware itself is also huge and complicated but also largely planned and recorded on paper, while the code behind it is contained only in the code — and then temporarily at times in the brains of the designers & organizers.

13 Levels of Beatboxing: Easy to Complex | WIRED

youtube.com

2005 Female World Beatbox Champion Butterscotch explains the art of beatboxing in 13 levels of difficulty. Starting with just the bass drum, Butterscotch layers more and more vocal drums and instruments on top of each other until she starts adding real, live instruments as well.

There was a time in my life where vocal percussion was a major hobby as it fit into my a cappella participation in college. Great video that shows the lay of the land from a master.