How to be a better Programmer: Tactics.
I'm a bit too busy for a long post, but a link was circulating around the office that I thought was worth passing on to any bioinformaticians out there.
http://dlowe-wfh.blogspot.com/2007/06/tactics-tactics-tactics.html
The article above is on how to be a better programmer - and I wholeheartedly agree with what the author proposed, with one caveat that I'll get to in a minute. The point of the the article is that learning to see the big picture (not specific skills) will make you a better programmer. In fact, this is the same advice Sun Tzu gives in "The Art of War", where understanding the terrain, the enemy, etc are the tools you need to be a better general. [This would be in contrast to learning how to wield each weapon, which would only make you a better warrior.] Frankly, it's good advice, and this leads you down the path towards good planning and clear thinking - the keys to success in most fields.
The caveat, however, is that there are times in your life where this is the wrong approach: ie. grad school. As a grad student, your goal isn't to be great at everything you touch - it's to specialize in some small corner of one field, and tactics are no help here. If grad school existed for Ninjas, the average student would walk out being the best (pick one of: poisoner/dart thrower/wall climber/etc) in the world - and likely knowing little or nothing about how to be a real ninja beyond what they learned in their Ninja undergrad. Tactics are never a bad investment, but they aren't always what is being asked of you.
Anyhow, I plan to take the advice in the article and to keep studying the tactics of bioinformatics in my spare time, even though my daily work is more on the details and implementation side of it. There are a few links in the comments of the original article to sites the author believes are good comp-sci tactics... I'll definitely be looking into those tonight. Besides, when it comes down to it, the tactics are really the fun parts of the problems, although there is also something to be said for getting your code working correctly and efficiently.... which I'd better get back to. (=
Happy coding!
http://dlowe-wfh.blogspot.com/2007/06/tactics-tactics-tactics.html
The article above is on how to be a better programmer - and I wholeheartedly agree with what the author proposed, with one caveat that I'll get to in a minute. The point of the the article is that learning to see the big picture (not specific skills) will make you a better programmer. In fact, this is the same advice Sun Tzu gives in "The Art of War", where understanding the terrain, the enemy, etc are the tools you need to be a better general. [This would be in contrast to learning how to wield each weapon, which would only make you a better warrior.] Frankly, it's good advice, and this leads you down the path towards good planning and clear thinking - the keys to success in most fields.
The caveat, however, is that there are times in your life where this is the wrong approach: ie. grad school. As a grad student, your goal isn't to be great at everything you touch - it's to specialize in some small corner of one field, and tactics are no help here. If grad school existed for Ninjas, the average student would walk out being the best (pick one of: poisoner/dart thrower/wall climber/etc) in the world - and likely knowing little or nothing about how to be a real ninja beyond what they learned in their Ninja undergrad. Tactics are never a bad investment, but they aren't always what is being asked of you.
Anyhow, I plan to take the advice in the article and to keep studying the tactics of bioinformatics in my spare time, even though my daily work is more on the details and implementation side of it. There are a few links in the comments of the original article to sites the author believes are good comp-sci tactics... I'll definitely be looking into those tonight. Besides, when it comes down to it, the tactics are really the fun parts of the problems, although there is also something to be said for getting your code working correctly and efficiently.... which I'd better get back to. (=
Happy coding!
Labels: Bioinformatics, Code planning, General Musings, Grad School, programming, Software
2 Comments:
Ummm....
Does this mean that I need to be on guard for poisoned darts next time I attend a VanBUG talk?
That depends who's giving the talk, I would imagine... (=
Post a Comment
<< Home