15. Occam’s razor suggests though it’s more a matter of driving economic growth at any cost than a principled philosophical position.
24. Programming teacher as wilderness survival guide (ranger, to continue the class metaphor)
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25. In the archetype of the ranger we find a connection back to apprenticeship in nature. Just follow them around & watch everything they do. Don’t ask questions just yet. Programming has a folkway dimension as well.
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Though in programming the actions and observations are mostly verbal, so our “monkey see monkey do” routines aren’t as smooth. Not quite the same as being in a martial arts dojo, watching the master demonstrate a move, feeling it in your own body.
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There’s a hunger for more embodied understanding of programming. Visual—NoFlo et al. Real-time feedback—
@worrydream. Kinesthetic? I hope it’s not just “smart clothes” that vibrate your shoulder when you have new email.Show this thread -
Bilingual people have an advantage when it comes to grasping high-level system design, because they intuitively understand there’s an irreducible gap between what something is and what you call it. So they can be more intentional about choosing names that clarify function.
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A polarizing example of this is the meme language used by the early devs at
@makerdao. I lock my gems into a cup (CDP) to draw Dai, but if the spot (price) of the gems (Ether) drops below the mat, someone can bite my cup and take my gems.Show this thread -
The jury’s out on whether this language aids or obstructs understanding, net. It becomes natural after a degree of practice, but is a big barrier to entry. What I like most about it is that its monosyllabic-ness. Maybe that’s the Chinese in me.
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32. To be more succinct about this point: bilingual people have a head start on being metasystematic https://twitter.com/levity/status/1207009909306351616?s=21 …https://twitter.com/levity/status/1207009909306351616 …
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33. The concept of parallax is useful here. It’s a generalization of “adding dimensionality.” Even if it’s not a “proper” dimension, a second point of view is useful. https://twitter.com/levity/status/1090329907819761664?s=21 …https://twitter.com/levity/status/1090329907819761664 …
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34. Unit testing creates parallax, because it requires the programmer to show the code’s behavior explicitly, in addition to having an internal model of why it works. It’s no guarantee of correctness, but two “eyes” are better than one.
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End of conversation
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