Venkatesh Rao wrote a blog post yesterday that divides projects into schlep work, puzzles, and packaging.
The schlep work is routine. It requires a lot of energy but not much creativity. The puzzle part requires creative problem solving. Packaging integrates everything into a useful form.
When I was in college, I thought that software development was 90% puzzle solving and 10% schlep work. Packaging would round to zero.
Now I'd say puzzle solving is 10% of the effort on a really interesting project, maybe 1% on a dull project. The rest is maybe 3 parts schlep work to 1 part packaging.
Computer science training prepares you for the smallest portion, the puzzle solving.
The schlep work is routine. It requires a lot of energy but not much creativity. The puzzle part requires creative problem solving. Packaging integrates everything into a useful form.
When I was in college, I thought that software development was 90% puzzle solving and 10% schlep work. Packaging would round to zero.
Now I'd say puzzle solving is 10% of the effort on a really interesting project, maybe 1% on a dull project. The rest is maybe 3 parts schlep work to 1 part packaging.
Computer science training prepares you for the smallest portion, the puzzle solving.
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