08.25.08

Reading The Fine Manual

Posted in Brain Rental, Process at 8:38 am by martin

I’m always amazed how long people spend trying to figure out software by fumbling around with it, rather than reading the manual. Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking “Golly Martin, reading manuals is all swell and good, but I’ve got to write code and fix bugs. If I spend an hour or two reading those manuals, well jeepers, by the end of it I won’t have written a single line of code, or fixed a single bug. Not one line! I don’t have time to read them, I need to get things done!”

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05.07.06

Work on Multiple Projects at Once?

Posted in Brain Rental, Process at 12:30 pm by martin

Garth Zeglin, a good friend from Grad school, was staying with me for a few days, and he mentioned that he likes to have two projects going at once.  That way, when he gets stuck on one, he can switch to the other for a while.  I wonder how this would work in practice?  How could it work at work?  And how does it interact with the advice I once heard from Bryan Adams, a grad student in Rodney Brooks' lab at MIT?  He said when you stop working for the day, you shouldn't completely finish a task, you should leave something very straight forward to do.  That way, when you're starting the next day, you can be eased back into "the zone."