A really good essay on programming
Paul Graham nails it once again:
A good programmer working intensively on his own code can hold it in his mind the way a mathematician holds a problem he’s working on. Mathematicians don’t answer questions by working them out on paper the way schoolchildren are taught to. They do more in their heads: they try to understand a problem space well enough that they can walk around it the way you can walk around the memory of the house you grew up in. At its best programming is the same. You hold the whole program in your head, and you can manipulate it at will.
Best description of the process I’ve ever read. Go read the rest.
Paul Graham is one of the reasons I started blogging, I wanted to see if I could write essays like he does. I disagree with some of his opinions, but he’s a magnificent writer on a range of subjects.
