Principals from Programming

Karl Martino – 11/6/2001

Following is a list of principals I’ve picked up, during my programming career, that I hope to carry in everything I do.

  • I am an idiot. That has profoundly affected the way I code. Everything must be simple enough for a child to understand, and even then I struggle. Being an idiot has forced me to refactor mercilessly. If I don’t, there’s no chance of me understanding my code. And if I don’t understand my code, there’s no chance of me getting it to work.I’ve seen people who can solve complex problems, and I admire them. Alas, I’m not one of them. So whenever I have to solve a complex problem, I make it simple first.

    If I can’t make a problem simple, it’s usually because someone else insists that it remain complex. In that case, I have to wait for someone smart to fix it (thank you, smart person), or for someone to change their mind and allow me to make the problem simple. Wayne Conrad

    Complex problems are just a series of simpler problems smushed together.

  • The most powerful programmers are the ones who came to the computer with a problem to solve. The least powerful are the ones with something to prove, about themselves or the unique rightness of their way of thinking. That’s arrogance.
    A curious and motivated user with the right tools is unstoppable, except when it comes time to work together. Then a single stinker, a person who wants to stop progress, has a lot of power, if we give it to them. Dave Winer, 2001Solve problems, don’t just point them out.

     

  • The ideas I stand for are not mine. I borrowed them from Socrates. I swiped them from Chesterfield. I stole them from Jesus. And I put them in a book. If you don’t like their rules, whose would you use? Dale CarnegieSteal ideas liberally from everyone else. Originality is not a virtue. Learn from the past.

     

  • The danger of our culture.- We belong to a period of which the culture is in danger of being destroyed by the appliances of culture. NietzschePut trust in people, not in things.

     

  • A culture can not survive if it attempts to be exclusive. Pope John Paul II – Quoting Gandhi in India, November 1999Don’t build solutions that try to do everything. Nothing can do it all. Instead, create solutions that play nicely with others, do only a few things, and do them well.

     

  • We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil. Donald Knuth
  • More computing sins are committed in the name of efficiency (without necessarily achieving it) than for any other single reason – including blind stupidity. W.A. WulfPerfectionism can be taken too far. It’s best to get a solution that does most of what you want to do then none at all. Using a war metaphor – it is better to win the majority of small battles then to wait for one conclusive battle-to-end-all-battles.

     

  • The Seven Habits: Be ProactiveIt is best to actively hunt for solutions to problems and not have problems come hunting for you.

     

  • The Seven Habits: Begin With The End In MindProjects must have solid deliverables. Only when goals are can be stated in clear cut terms can they be achieved. Projects chasing after goals that are not specific are never successful.

     

  • The Seven Habits: Put First Things FirstSometimes you need to do the things that failures do not like to do. Every journey begins with that first step. And sometimes it is the hardest. Schedule your priorities, not the other way around.

     

  • The Seven Habits: Think Win/WinAways shoot for everyone looking good in the end. Find the good-guys and make sure they each share in any success. If you can do this with your enemies – then you’ve really done a great thing.

     

  • The Seven Habits: Think First To Understand, Then Be UnderstoodBusiness projects that aren’t solutions to diagnosed needs are wasteful projects. They are doomed to failure. Especially true in technology. While technology may expose new capabilities – it is more typically true that it is business need that should be satisfied by technology – not the other way around.

     

  • The Seven Habits: SynergizeAll of the parts to a solution should cooperate with each other and play nicely with each other by being designed with inputs and outputs that are simple and conscise.

     

  • The Seven Habits: Sharpen The SawContinuously improve skills and knowledge by seeing what others are doing in the world.

    Update: This piece was republished in SOAWorld 10-19-2008.