Re:Why I teach vim
by camgunz on Wednesday November 18, 2020 @09:41PM
(#25145624)
It's not about force multipliers in general. It's about looking at what force multipliers incentivize/deincentivize and amplify/muffle.
With your examples, I would say something like:
OK I once only had a knife, but now I've invented an egg beater. This will allow me to do some things a lot more easily like:
- Bake cakes
- Eat soup
This will also mean I cut myself a lot less when I do decide to do something like eat soup.
So we're gonna have more cakes/soup in the world. Good? Great, egg beater stays. Bad? Woof, burying this thing in the yard. But wait I hate cutting myself. OK I'll figure out some other way to keep myself from gorging on cakes, or I guess be content with that.
So, broadly it's about thinking systemically--how the design of our tools affects how and what we build. Because it definitely has an effect. If it's easier to use a nailer than a screw gun, guess what, you're nailing more stuff. If it's easier to write a PRECONDITION clause in a function definition than a unit test, guess what you're writing a PRECONDITION clause.
With your examples, I would say something like:
OK I once only had a knife, but now I've invented an egg beater. This will allow me to do some things a lot more easily like:
- Bake cakes
- Eat soup
This will also mean I cut myself a lot less when I do decide to do something like eat soup.
So we're gonna have more cakes/soup in the world. Good? Great, egg beater stays. Bad? Woof, burying this thing in the yard. But wait I hate cutting myself. OK I'll figure out some other way to keep myself from gorging on cakes, or I guess be content with that.
So, broadly it's about thinking systemically--how the design of our tools affects how and what we build. Because it definitely has an effect. If it's easier to use a nailer than a screw gun, guess what, you're nailing more stuff. If it's easier to write a PRECONDITION clause in a function definition than a unit test, guess what you're writing a PRECONDITION clause.