Skip to content

Comment on Bootstrapping Understanding: An Introduction to Reverse Engineering

Comments

This one is going on my permanent list of links to recommend.

When it comes to learning these sorts processes, there is a hierarchy of related phenomena required to succeed:

motivation > intuition (experience) > patience/persistence/determination > skill (aptitude) > tools

When people are learning to program, I always tell them that regardless of their preference between books, videos, classes or peyote, the most important thing they need to persevere is a problem or project that they passionately want to see through to the end. This urgency translates directly to giving a shit, which is something I believe is critically missing when implementing a TODO clone in language framework X.

My hierarchy above can be viewed from another lens: in what order does having ample supply of this trait open the aperture for all of the others that follow?

Being really patient and having access to Stack Overflow can make up for a lack of skill. Doing something for a long time can occasionally make short work of a project if you see the answer quickly. However, nothing else in the chain matters if you aren't urgently motivated to reach the conclusion. When you feel genuine need to see something through, everything else clicks into place.

AboutSource Built by g1lg1l

Hackerly is an independent reader for Hacker News, built on the public HN API. Not affiliated with Y Combinator.