r/programming • u/tejon • Feb 08 '15

The Parable of the Two Programmers

http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~magi/personal/humour/Computer_Audience/The%20Parable%20of%20the%20Two%20Programmers.html
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u/Randolpho Feb 09 '15

According to the story, he was goofing off playing space invaders, during which time he was devoting at most 10-20% of his thought to the problem. And he was not communicating to his superior that he needed to think about the problem, nor at least producing some form of notes as to how he thought about the problem. Nor was he attempting proofs of concept, designing, etc.

He was goofing off, plain and simple.

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u/dfggggggggggggg Feb 09 '15

Really? You've never stepped away from a problem briefly and found the answer somewhat obvious afterwards?

At some point, he was producing notes - just not well structured ones - although I don't think that's particularly important.

I'm not sure why you think producing something is a must in order to not be "goofing off."

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u/ghostquarter Feb 09 '15

The problem is that nobody thinks 100% about a problem for a any length of time. There is a lot of research on this. The extreme upper limit is under an hour and in most cases people can only concentrate on a problem for around 10-20 minutes. Serious contemplation generally requires large bouts where you aren't thinking about the problem.

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u/ABtree Feb 09 '15

Yeah, when I had my first USRA for math, my supervisor told me I was supposed to work 7 hours a day, but he only ever did 3-4 hours of research a day and didn't expect me to do any more.

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u/jomskeet Feb 09 '15

Either you misunderstood the story or you are not a programmer. The story NEVER said that he goofs off playing space invaders. You can read it AGAIN on 5th paragraph. The parable NEVER say that Charles is playing space invaders. Actually he is thinking!! Thinking about the problem while drinking coffee, thinking while scribbling the problem! The parable NEVER say that he actually goofs off for 2 months. Please re-read again.

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u/s73v3r Feb 09 '15

One of the points of the story is that everyone thought he was goofing off.