Coming from a programming background and moving more in to the management side of things, I've come to learn that while it's a lot of fun to know the minutia, it is not necessary to do your job. It can even be a waste of time.
The Six Sigma (I can feel you rolling your eyes) folks have a tool they call KPI (key performance indicators). KPI is like an abstraction for management. Think of it like a benchmarking or profiling utility for your organization. The purpose of the KPI is to abstract away the underlying complexity of the tasks being performed and answer the question: "Is our performance adequate?" This should help managers to avoid micro-managing their staff.
A generalist programmer does not need to know the internal differences between SRAM and DRAM because there is no change or improvement they can effect by knowing these details; not even on the optimization side of things. They only need to know how the two affect application peformance. To dig deeper is to commit to micro-managing the computer. Even worse, there's nothing you can change about the way SRAM or DRAM operates.
I understand completely if you enjoy knowing this kind of thing. I do to. I just don't accept that every programmer needs to know this.
I somehow asumed that the article was about the human's memory works, and tips on how to maximize your (programming) efficiency by better exploiting your working memory.
Comments
Every programmer does not need to know this.
Coming from a programming background and moving more in to the management side of things, I've come to learn that while it's a lot of fun to know the minutia, it is not necessary to do your job. It can even be a waste of time.
The Six Sigma (I can feel you rolling your eyes) folks have a tool they call KPI (key performance indicators). KPI is like an abstraction for management. Think of it like a benchmarking or profiling utility for your organization. The purpose of the KPI is to abstract away the underlying complexity of the tasks being performed and answer the question: "Is our performance adequate?" This should help managers to avoid micro-managing their staff.
A generalist programmer does not need to know the internal differences between SRAM and DRAM because there is no change or improvement they can effect by knowing these details; not even on the optimization side of things. They only need to know how the two affect application peformance. To dig deeper is to commit to micro-managing the computer. Even worse, there's nothing you can change about the way SRAM or DRAM operates.
I understand completely if you enjoy knowing this kind of thing. I do to. I just don't accept that every programmer needs to know this.
I somehow asumed that the article was about the human's memory works, and tips on how to maximize your (programming) efficiency by better exploiting your working memory.
I guess I'll have to wait for that. Bummer! hehe