Check out the 1999 Edition of Peopleware
by DeMarco and Lister. They describe a controlled study
that digs deeper than the thin concept of `productivity' to uncover the creativity cost present in noisy situations. The bottom line is
that programmers can manage to get work done in
quiet environments (such as a small office) or in noisy environments, but creativity suffers in a noisy environment.
One theory is that the part of the brain that's
mostly involved in creativity and general insight is easily interrupted by outside noises, including music. They found the same results among people who like to work with music
and those who don't.
They further point out research that shows that
good programmers tend to have bigger offices.
It's not clear whether the better programmers get
jobs at better companies, or whether bigger offices tend to make programmers better.
But as Fred Brooks said about this study, ``Who
cares what the reason is!?'' Big Offices are obviously a good thing.
Re:So who's going to be the Hewlett or the Packard
on
William Hewlett Dead
·
· Score: 1
The pioneers of this generation of computing will do their job: they'll build a platform on which future things are build later.
Physics doesn't need another Isaac Newton -- it needs a Stephen Hawking. Computer Science doesn't
need another Babbage -- it needs a Donald Knuth.
We'll always need innovators, but the nature of the
innovation will change at each logical generation.
Yes, core was expensive, but memory wasn't the
only thing in short supply -- insight into good
software-design practice was rare, and bad habits
were formed.
Many vertical-market applications are designed by
modeling the actions of the applications' users.
Obviously, a programmer needs to understand
the domain of the problem his program is supposed
to solve.
Years ago, it was common for a programmer
to be handed a paper form, and told to implement
the form exactly in software. Just like old
checks, many of these forms had date fields
that were pre-printed with
1 9 [] []
Thus, the database was created with a two-digit
year field.
"The greatest danger to good computer science
research today may be excessive relevance . . .
[C]ommercial pressure . . . will divert the
attention of the best thinkers from real
innovation to exploitation of the current fad,
from prospecting to mining a known lode"
-- Dennis Ritchie
Communications of the ACM, August, 1984
Thinking skills -- not computer skills -- endure
on
CS vs CIS
·
· Score: 1
Computer Science distinguishes itself from
mere information technology in that it is a field
of precise, scientific thinking. It's this careful
thinking that helps you both develop new systems,
and comprehend problems in others.
(Consider: The people at egghead.com had likely been told that their M$ IIS server was highly
`secure' (whatever that means), because, among
other reasons, they used SSL for credit-card
transactions. The computer operators that egghead hired probably didn't have the basic comprehension
to realize that they had a very weak system for
securing their customers' data.)
Computer skills have some of the shortest lifetime of any skills; the most valuable skill that you'll derive from a CS education is the
basic ability to think.
Slashdot Mirror
One theory is that the part of the brain that's mostly involved in creativity and general insight is easily interrupted by outside noises, including music. They found the same results among people who like to work with music and those who don't.
They further point out research that shows that good programmers tend to have bigger offices. It's not clear whether the better programmers get jobs at better companies, or whether bigger offices tend to make programmers better. But as Fred Brooks said about this study, ``Who cares what the reason is!?'' Big Offices are obviously a good thing.
Physics doesn't need another Isaac Newton -- it needs a Stephen Hawking. Computer Science doesn't need another Babbage -- it needs a Donald Knuth.
We'll always need innovators, but the nature of the innovation will change at each logical generation.
Many vertical-market applications are designed by modeling the actions of the applications' users. Obviously, a programmer needs to understand the domain of the problem his program is supposed to solve.
Years ago, it was common for a programmer to be handed a paper form, and told to implement the form exactly in software. Just like old checks, many of these forms had date fields that were pre-printed with
Thus, the database was created with a two-digit year field.
"The greatest danger to good computer science
research today may be excessive relevance . . .
[C]ommercial pressure . . . will divert the
attention of the best thinkers from real
innovation to exploitation of the current fad,
from prospecting to mining a known lode"
-- Dennis Ritchie
Communications of the ACM, August, 1984
(Consider: The people at egghead.com had likely been told that their M$ IIS server was highly `secure' (whatever that means), because, among other reasons, they used SSL for credit-card transactions. The computer operators that egghead hired probably didn't have the basic comprehension to realize that they had a very weak system for securing their customers' data.)
Computer skills have some of the shortest lifetime of any skills; the most valuable skill that you'll derive from a CS education is the basic ability to think.