This is definitely the relevant point when it comes to hiring programmers. FizzBuzz is already so close to pseudocode that if you had to write it more clearly, it wouldn't take any more time to just write the code yourself. A programmer who can only work at that level is not a benefit to your team.
You really want people who will improve your team's output by an amount greater than the value of the extra time it takes to communicate with them.
FizzBuzz can be an effective filter to very quickly get rid of the lowest level of applicants and start having a real discussion with the ones who are left.
>> 2. It also helps to be cheerfully unembarrassed about taking the lead in organizing groups to do stuff. People are often secretly grateful to be able to follow someone else. They'll often reject you. They'll say yes but then flake out on you. You'll feel mortified; you'll be certain that everyone else thinks you're a dork. That's OK; keep at it. (This is good practice for customer development and sales work, come to think of it.)
This is exceptionally true. I moved from Boston to Beijing a few years ago (and in with my girlfriend at the same time) and essentially had 0 friends for about six months. I'm not naturally very social, so of course, I became extremely depressed.
At some point, though, I got through it and realized that I needed to meet more people. I started a "Beijing Coworking" email list for anyone who was working on a startup or freelancing to meet in coffee shops every day. I literally planned out which restaurant I would be in every day for a week every sunday and emailed it out to 100+ people. Only 3-4 people came regularly, but some of them are now among my closest friends.
I also learned from one of them how to turn acquaintances into friends. She had an email list of cool people she knew, and would schedule random events a few times a week. She didn't care at all if people came or not.
She's since moved away, but now every time I meet someone, I add them to my contacts and invite the whole set of Beijing contacts out whenever I go to a concert or out to eat, etc. People who don't come to anything in the first three months get dropped, but even so, just losing the embarrassment of inviting people means I naturally give them a few more chances to become a friend.
The book looks awesome, thanks a lot for the link!
Just yesterday, I started teaching my co-founder how to code in python, and wanted to very quickly get to something useful to give him inspiration to keep going.
I ended up starting with the python interpreter for ~30 min, followed by writing a very short program to show a random inspirational quote on the command line, and then turned it into a module so we could import it back in the interpreter. The end goal was to show how programs get built up from smaller pieces and can become more and more complex.
I think he really started to get it once we added a few test functions to test the different range of inputs to his "get_quote" function.
Next time, I'm going to show him Django via simple demo site and hopefully he'll be at the point where he can start editing HTML. (I'll either use https://github.com/mpdaugherty/django-demo-project, which displays quotes and demonstrates views and templates, or https://github.com/mpdaugherty/RateBeers, which rates beers and adds in some DB models, depending on how far he gets).
I actually started writing shorter lines of code once I got my large external monitor. I've found it's really convenient to set my editor to take up 50% of the screen vertically and have either a command line or browser on the other half of the screen (and reference windows on the laptop screen). In this setup, the editor is actually slightly narrower and taller than when full-screen on my laptop.
Switching between screen sizes really made me realize the importance of making sure all my code breaks at column 80, which makes it easier to read in terminals, on other people's screens, etc. as well. Good practice, I think.
Having too many tabs open at one time can definitely hurt my concentration. I can remember multiple times in the last few weeks when I just wanted to look up some specific information or send a single email, but upon switching back to Chrome, ended up answering other emails in my inbox or looking at tabs I had left open with articles that I wanted to read.
I've started making sure I use an app (Pocket) to keep track of articles so I can close the browser tab immediately and read one article at a time exclusively, and on my schedule (e.g. sitting in a taxi or on the subway). For emails, I guess I should write them in a text editor before switching to GMail, so I just have to copy, paste, send.
You really want people who will improve your team's output by an amount greater than the value of the extra time it takes to communicate with them.
FizzBuzz can be an effective filter to very quickly get rid of the lowest level of applicants and start having a real discussion with the ones who are left.