Re: computer and wheel time

[Emanuel Berg]

Daniel Corbe <corbe@corbe.net> writes:

> Eventually you begin to butt up against the law of
> diminishing returns. Spending half an hour on
> something that's going to save you 10 minutes every
> day is a net gain; however, you'll eventually run
> out of those types of problems to solve.
>
> Pretty soon you'll be spending half an hour on
> something that saves you 30 seconds here and there
> and that's likely to be a net loss.

That's exactly right! I didn't know there was a name
for it but it is something I've seen many times and
yes, in Emacs as well.

So the question is, why do you do the "loss" stuff?
Probably because your brain is trained to think like
that, because that has worked so well during the
"gain" period!

But equally true, people like Lisp. I wish there was
a way that creativity and enjoyment could be
positioned for everyone's gain.

The problem with big software projects is that the
programmer has not experienced that problem first hand
so is alienated from the domain day one and when there
is adversity he is much more likely to quit. It isn't
exactly writing two or three defuns about six lines
each, then try them and see they work and use them to
solve the issues that arose ten minutes ago, and see
them solved before your eyes. Especially to people who
write code all days those innocent six-liners must be
very refreshing indeed...

-- 
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573