tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33042626.post2908965092552488995..comments2008-04-29T13:31:40.134-07:00Comments on Paul Buchheit: Wasting time on things that really don't matterPaul Buchheithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08521809827597159995noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33042626.post-85652297443947321942007-06-03T12:59:00.000-07:002007-06-03T12:59:00.000-07:00I usually call up the person trying to create a bi...I usually call up the person trying to create a big fuss over a trivial issue and try to reason with her/him. A lot of people who tend to use flaming language in a mail thread are receptive over the phone/in person conversation.<BR/><BR/>"<BR/>somebody will seize the chance to show that he is doing his job, that he is paying attention, that he is *here*.<BR/>"<BR/><BR/>Even though this may be true in some cases, IMHO this is usually not the case. Quite often engineers who feel/work passionately on a product bring up 'String.empty' kind of issues. Usually these are the kind of people who make things happen when its really important to move fast. It is extremely important that leads/management to not give the kind of perception as the above quoted statement.Manojhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08680789362388063736noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33042626.post-81774421854513010822007-06-02T16:52:00.000-07:002007-06-02T16:52:00.000-07:00Whoever invented string.Empty obviously had too mu...Whoever invented string.Empty obviously had too much time on their hands since there was already a widely used and universally understood literal "" that does the same thing. Now hundreds of man hours will be wasted on debating this topic worldwide.Shalabhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13101185748553584188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33042626.post-66005303097008471762007-06-01T12:44:00.000-07:002007-06-01T12:44:00.000-07:00You should use "string.Empty" as the lowercase for...You should use "string.Empty" as the lowercase form of string correctly implies it's a primitive<BR/><BR/>(hah!)Aaron Griffinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14640702836139770737noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33042626.post-5999252426932866432007-06-01T12:12:00.000-07:002007-06-01T12:12:00.000-07:00well, most of the comments at news.YC and other 'n...well, most of the comments at news.YC and other 'non-technical' newsgroups debate things that "dont really matter"; <BR/><BR/>However, it's the process of debating the silly stuff that creates social friction, so that our gears may slough off grit, interlock and start working together. Now THAT's important!Anil Philiphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01997916311534632044noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33042626.post-30060582971676331792007-06-01T10:18:00.000-07:002007-06-01T10:18:00.000-07:00As Hamming asked:What are the important problems o...As Hamming <A HREF="http://weblog.raganwald.com/2005/04/you-and-your-research.html" REL="nofollow">asked</A>:<BR/><BR/><I>What are the important problems of your field?</I>, and;<BR/><BR/><I>What important problems are you working on?</I>, and then finally;<BR/><BR/><I>If what you are doing is not important, and if you don't think it is going to lead to something important, why are you at Bell Labs working on it?</I><BR/><BR/>I strongly suspect that very few of the people debating String.Empty feel it is the most important problem in their field.<BR/><BR/>So why are they working on it?Reginald Braithwaitehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13132345822387028437noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33042626.post-58805255790383948682007-06-01T09:43:00.000-07:002007-06-01T09:43:00.000-07:00I very often weed out the things that don't matter...I very often weed out the things that don't matter with this simple statement:<BR/><BR/>"Will I care in 6 months?"Michael Waleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11948627126552078058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33042626.post-63882330255324156552007-06-01T07:04:00.000-07:002007-06-01T07:04:00.000-07:00I just finished reading "The Art of Learning" by J...I just finished reading "The Art of Learning" by Josh Waitzkin (he is the subject matter of "Searching for Bobby Fischer") -- a great book. In it, Josh talks about (page 35) Young Chess players caught in this trap: these Young Chess players start to memorize countless chess openings -- which leads them to "instant success". But then, they don't study the middlegame or the endgame as much. So they lack any real depth. <BR/><BR/>I'm building a small app for the Facebook platform. Even thought I love Lisp and Python, the official clients are in Java & PHP: so I choose PHP. Didn't want to fight the system. And after playing with PHP5, it isn't all that bad!!! ;-)srihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08283149144110943486noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33042626.post-90765014402147383852007-06-01T06:44:00.000-07:002007-06-01T06:44:00.000-07:00Yes, people actually do have time do discuss all t...Yes, people actually do have time do discuss all this stuff, and they enjoy it. For example, a lot of topics in comp.lang.c++.moderated address similar topics. I have to admit, sometimes it's hard to resist...:)Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16642515426991345939noreply@blogger.com