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Re: Taking care of your tools

by trammell (Priest)
on Mar 11, 2005 at 15:21 UTC ( [id://438671]=note: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??


in reply to Taking care of your tools

One of my tools is my brain, so I make sure to "sharpen the saw" from time to time.

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Re^2: Taking care of your tools
by Anonymous Monk on Mar 11, 2005 at 20:12 UTC
    One of my tools is my brain, so I make sure to "sharpen the saw" from time to time.

    Sharpening a saw by hand is a difficult, slow, and risk-prone activity. If you mis-align the teeth, you may end up with a duller saw than when you started. If you apply force in the wrong place, you may break the blade altogether.

    Sometimes it's just cheaper and easier to buy another saw blade, or even another saw. In the context of programming, that would be consultation or collaboration with a co-worker, or perhaps hiring someone new...

      Sharpening a saw by hand is a difficult, slow, and risk-prone activity. If you mis-align the teeth, you may end up with a duller saw than when you started. If you apply force in the wrong place, you may break the blade altogether.

      Just to stretch the metaphor, I wonder what sort of activity might be comparable to "breaking the blade". Probably the closest thing in my life is burn-out from a rotten job environment. Had me seriously considering an occupation change.

Re^2: Taking care of your tools
by samizdat (Vicar) on Mar 14, 2005 at 19:40 UTC
    Rats... beaten to it again! :-D That's a good link!

    Seconded. While I heartily agree with all the comments on editors and HDD backups, my mind is my most important tool. Whenever I'm hung up, I back off and examine the attitudes that frame the context of my attention.

    Be it the way I'm iterating over a file, the tool I choose to approach a task, my attitude towards that task, or how I see myself in relation to a programming team, I constantly have a background thread in my mind looking for stressed nodes that indicate improper framing.

    In programming, things are just taking too long, either to run or to code. In attitude, either heat or 'tiredness' are present when there's a mental bugaboo present. In relationships with others, I look at what I call my teammates subconsciously. Are they partners or are they problems?

    If your mind is clear, your code will be clear.
      If your mind is clear, your code will be clear.

      A minor nit - If your mind is clear, your code can be clear. I'm pretty sure Damian Conway's mind is very clear, but I'll be damned if his code is! :-)

      Being right, does not endow the right to be rude; politeness costs nothing.
      Being unknowing, is not the same as being stupid.
      Expressing a contrary opinion, whether to the individual or the group, is more often a sign of deeper thought than of cantankerous belligerence.
      Do not mistake your goals as the only goals; your opinion as the only opinion; your confidence as correctness. Saying you know better is not the same as explaining you know better.

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