p3x.deFast is better than slow
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codeinaboxhttps://dubroy.com/blog/fast-is-better-than-slow/
About 10 years ago, I realized all the best programmers I had worked with had something in common: they were fast. By that I mean that they moved quickly: we’d discuss a problem and an hour or two later they’d already have a patch ready or a prototype to show off.
It took me a while, but eventually I realized: they weren’t fast because they were great programmers, they were great programmers because they were fast.
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Yeah, there’s several silly metrics for management to judge programmers. It’s mostly because management needs some oversimplification, because they have no clue what programmers do all day.
Most common one is “lines of code” (LoC) written in a day. Of course you’re making the company more money if you write more code. That’s your job after all, right? Right?!?? …Of course that punishes people who write efficient code. Who think first and then come up with a smaller, better to maintain version.
It’s similar with speed. But just tell the programmers what to do! It’s easy to get 80% the way with 20% the effort. That’s how it always works. Your programmers can do that, just write it into the project specification.
But to be honest, the major time factor isn’t writing code. It’s all the project management. Misunderstandings, specifications which change over time. Additional requirements after the fact. That’s the major time waster in software projects. Typing down the code takes time as well, but it’s usually not where projects go sideways.
And use some good frameworks. Leverage someone’s wisdom. Also a major time waster if you wrote code for 2 weeks and find out you’re using the wrong framework and need to start over.
(Oh boy, and please don’t take the advice to send in half-baked PRs. Yeah, that might look like you’re done sooner. But that’s gonna waste somebody else’s time. And it’ll inevitably return to you and then you’re gonna put in some more time anyway. And you’re gonna waste some more time on arguing about details, changing around stuff… Just get it done on the first try, without any additional back and forth. And returning to each problem three more times. That’s the way to move quick. The outlined way is again how to make management happy. They LOVE to see a PR early and then a lot of activity in the comments. Looks like it’s complicated and people are very busy. But they’re most likely only adding noise and unnecessary back and forth. It’s just… if you just get done with it, quick and without any fuss, nobody will notice.)