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I'm an Idiot

raywenderlich.com

49 points by davidfekke 9 years ago · 11 comments

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d--b 9 years ago

Starting reading this I thought that I wasn't an idiot, and then I realized that I internalized most of what's there.

For instance, I've given up trying to avoid off-by-one issues in complex loops, I'm just writing the loop, testing it, and then see if it's off-by-one or not.

Another example is that I know that I get really confused by not-even-complex logic expressions. It takes me ages to get what !(a || !b) means, and then I am not sure at all I'm right.

I totally relate to the author's problem with max(0,min(1,x)), I've screwed that one so many times.

Mz 9 years ago

Seems to basically be about overcoming perfectionism and getting over your big ego, both of which are common problems. It is better than I expected it to be:

Yes, you can do things like this. You can use custom operators, you can wrap things in things that process things and give you a thing all in one line of code. But are you actually helping anyone, or are you just masturbating in public about how clever you are?

whipoodle 9 years ago

Well. It's one thing when we think that about ourselves, another thing when we think or say that about others.

JohnStrange 9 years ago

I think he's wrong with Step 2, but the beginning of the talk is fine.

  • y4mi 9 years ago

    let me guess, you didn't actually watch the talk...

    because everyone is an idiot by his definition. nobody knows a new programming language before they actually learned to work with it, and making notes does help everyone to remember things. and yes, writing unintuitive code to save a few lines is always a bad idea, unless you're the sole developer and aren't planning on actually maintaining the product.

    you could argue that his definition is wrong though. not sure what you'd want to achieve by that though, considering that its clearly meant for people with imposter syndrome.

jjtheblunt 9 years ago

AN not A

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