Deconcentration of Attention: Addressing the Complexity of Software (2016) | Hacker News Reader

Deconcentration of Attention: Addressing the Complexity of Software (2016)

deconcentration-of-attention.com

I embrace the 10x rewrite technique acknowledging the fact software development is hard.

First I make a component work. Then make it with work together with the other components. Then refactor them all to look uniform. Then create the generators to make future components look uniform. Then employ them in real life scenarios. Another refactoring is coming after 2-3 projects.

Then a first stable version is coming. At the seventh rewrite.

I had to admit I’ve managed only a few times to reach a level above seven. That’s a fantastic feeeling. You know you have a rock solid foundation and anything you build upon it just lasts.

I have no information on what type of organizational structure under which you do your work, therefore my question may sound a little poor because I do lack context.

But how do you negotiate deadlines and keep the upper chain of decision making happy and aware of the value being created with each refactor? Most of the time with the teams I worked with, "works" is the sole metric of success and features keep being sold or promised leaving no room to deal with documented technical debt (and the lack of such documentation).

I work 80% for free (for myself), 20% for money (consulting, freelancing).

Free it's like a sabbatical. Whenever I need to learn a new technology I take a sabbatical, build a framework, then go back to produce income with that framework.

For example in September last year I took a sabbatical for learning Design Systems. My first paying customer came this August. This streak took a year, and I'm at the third iteration only.

When on sabbatical, I'm changing locations / cities / countries to be able to support myself during that period. When in production mode, I'm again moving to larger / more expensive places.

Do you only go to production after step four? Serious question.

Right. Without generators, I'm not going into production.

Also I'm in a privileged situation / I create a privileged situation for myself to be able to follow this process. Please see my other reply to this thread for details.

Thank you for writing this. Very well put.

Similar concept is focused and diffuse thinking. https://fs.blog/2019/10/focused-diffuse-thinking/

reminded me of :

https://randsinrepose.com/archives/anti-flow/

as well as

https://camhashemi.com/posts/focus-vs-coordination/

Nice, I enjoyed these articles, especially the first. If "flow" is deep focus and bringing order, what the author calls "anti-flow" is creative exploratory brainstorms, with "high entropy state". I agree intuitively that these are different modes of thinking, both valuable in their own ways.

@irthomasthomas - How did you come across this?

His other piece is fascinating. What else am I missing?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com