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Comment by karmeliet | Hacker News Reader

Then you are a "bad operator" according to Escoffier:)

  "I should thus resemble those bad operators who, having neglected their mise en place, are obliged to make it in the course of other work, and thereby not only run the risk of making it badly, but also of losing valuable time which might be used to better advantage.
  Elementary preparations consist of those things whereof one is constantly in need, which may be prepared in advance, and which are kept available for use at a moment's notice."

A modern guide to cookery, A. Escoffier 1907

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> Elementary preparations consist of those things whereof one is constantly in need, which may be prepared in advance, and which are kept available for use at a moment's notice.

I think this one sentence much better describes what I feel the spirit of mise en place is in regards to software. Things which you need, which may be prepared in advance. When I think of it this way, I am reminded of the many little scripts, aliases, editor plugins, configuration settings, etc. that I have accrued over the course of my day job that make it easy to do the things I have to do many times per day. For example, our product can be launched in several different configurations, so I have a script that takes a build directory and a configuration parameter and sets up everything so it's launched exactly as it should be; I also have a bunch of GDB scripts to set up the environment and to display data in a meaningful fashion; and many more things like that. Unlike in cooking however, once I have set up some aspect of my msie en place, it stays that way forever - it's like if you cut the peppers once and you have an infinite bucket of cut peppers. When looked at that way, I think it makes sense to make your mise en place as you go, since you don't really know what you need before you need it. Obviously a lot of trivial things should be set up beforehand and shared with the team, but every programmer has a slightly different workflow, so it pays to write some simple little tools for yourself when you come to need them and put them in your mise en place.

I believe the OP says exactly that he doesn't make it in the course of other work, but during downtime, which is overall faster.

Frying onions is not downtime.

This is the "your example is invalid, therefore your argument is invalid" fallacy.

It's not a fallacy. There is downtime in baking, but not cooking.

"There's no downtime in cooking" is different from "cooking onions is not downtime". Though you'd still need to clarify "even if stuff is already chopped", I guess.

“Cooking onions is not down time” directly follows from “there’s no downtime in cooking.” If there is no downtime in cooking is true, then *cooking* onions cannot be downtime.

Indeed, and if the GP has said "there's no downtime in cooking", it would have been apt.

"Cooking onions is not downtime" isn't an effective rebuttal of the general point of "I chop things during downtime, for example when cooking onions".

If cooking onions is not downtime, then it absolutely is an effective rebuttal to the general point of "I chop things [only] during downtime, for example when cooking onions".

"I only tell the truth, for example when lying" is irrecoverably self-invalidating. There is no second example that could nullify its effects. The argument is made invalid by that example specifically. (Not to mention, it calls into question the claimant's understanding of what it means to tell the truth.)

You have misidentified the fallacy here.

How is "there's no downtime in cooking" better than "Cooking onions is not downtime?" Both are assertions without backing evidence. For instance, it's possible for "Cooking onions is not downtime?" to be true (e.g. cooking onions requires active work) while "there's no downtime in cooking" is not true (e.g. cooking chicken broth involves downtime).

Because one is an effective counterargument if true, the other isn't, even if true. Hence, the former is a better counterargument.

It kind of is, versus an active task like chopping.

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