8 ms·

I wish more programmers would pay attention to how productive power users in different can be with their tools. Look at CAD competitions. I wonder if there ar

by paddy_m 9mo ago

I wish more programmers would pay attention to how productive power users in different can be with their tools. Look at CAD competitions. I wonder if there are video editting competitions?

colmmacc 9mo ago
The Oscars, The Golden Globes, the Emmys, just a few!
- salviati 9mo ago
  You never get to see the action there. Just the finished product.
  - Waterluvian 9mo ago
    I think this may actually be two different things. Much like how being good at coding doesn’t mean it’s fun to watch you code. Though there are “performance” coders where it really is!
    - deleted 9mo ago
      [deleted]
- chongli 9mo ago
  Although they do have a category for best editing, it's hard to call it an award for "best film editor" when it doesn't control for the overall quality of the film. For example, with the Oscars, it's extremely common (2/3 of the time) for a film that wins best picture to also win best editing.
  - anamexis 9mo ago
    I wonder how you could construct a reasonably controlled competition for film editing.
    - toast0 9mo ago
      Drop 10 hours of footage to the competitors on day 0, assign judges random groups of completed films on day N. Maybe let each editor request one reshoot in the first week, a committee aggregates similar requests, all editors get all the reshoots once they're finalized. Maybe include storyboards and a rubrik for what story the film is supposed to share and how we're meant to feel, but maybe not.
  - tshaddox 9mo ago
    Perhaps that’s because Best Picture isn’t controlling for the effect that good editing has on the film.
- dfxm12 9mo ago
  These reward the artistry of the output of the edits, not the productivity of the editors.
lysace 9mo ago
Programming efficiency isn’t about typing/editing fast - it’s about great decision-making. Although I have seen the combo of both working out very well. If you focus on fast typing/editing skills to level up, but still have bad decision-making skills, you'll just end up burying yourself (and possibly your team) faster and more decisively. (I have seen that, too.)
- orlp 9mo ago
  The person you replied to stated: > how productive power users in different [fields] can be with their tools There are a lot more tools in programming than your text editor. Linters, debuggers, AI assistants, version control, continuous integration, etc. I personally know I'm terrible at using debuggers. Is this a shortcoming of mine? Probably. But I also feel debuggers could be a lot, lot better than they are right now. I think for a lot of us reflecting at our workflow and seeing things we do that could be done more efficiently with better (usage of) tooling could pay off.
  - deleted 9mo ago
    [deleted]
- etbebl 9mo ago
  I interpreted the original comment totally differently - I thought they were saying that the programmers [who created these tools] should pay more attention to how productive [or not] power users can be with the tools [that they created]. And use that as an important metric for software quality. Which I definitely agree with.
doctorhandshake 9mo ago
I used to work as technical director for a touring live graphic design, 3D modeling, and animation tournament. It was kind of like iron chef for designers. They worked live in timed rounds with their screens projected overhead. It was sponsored by Adobe, Autodesk, and Wacom. It was pretty impressive to see how power users did their thing for sure.
- bost-ty 9mo ago
  Hi! Do you remember the name of that competition? Super interested in that. I've seen your work at Hard Work Party before, by the way! Really cool stuff, glad to see you've also got the startup going as well.
  - doctorhandshake 9mo ago
    Thanks! It was called Cut&Paste
analog31 9mo ago
Or any users for that matter. The familiar "I can't see how anybody can stand to use Excel" is too widespread to be dismissed as a fluke.
dyauspitr 9mo ago
There is a head to head CAD guy on Youtube. I wish I could remember his name, I’ll look it up and update this post.
DaiPlusPlus 9mo ago
> wonder if there are video editting competitions? Yes - but they've turned into something I'd really rather not watch: https://www.opus.pro/agent/human-creator-vs-ai https://www.opus.pro/agent/human-creator-vs-ai
wildzzz 9mo ago
In high school, I participated in a STEM-based competition. There were a ton of categories like CO2 dragsters (my favorite), architecture, 2D and 3D CAD, GIS, and numerous others I can't remember. Some categories had more of a business focus but most were science/engineering related. The 3D CAD one was pretty fun. I recall two parts. In the first half, you got a hand-drawn sketch of a bushing and had to recreate it in Autodesk Inventor as fast as possible and then generate a 2D drawing properly dimensioned (like what you'd hand to a machinist). The second half involved creating all of the parts for a basic ceiling fan and then making an animated exploded view that also spun the fan. I was really good at that stuff back then but I definitely wasn't the quickest. I'm sure it's a lot different now, so much of CAD now involved CNC and 3D printing that's there's probably aspects that include messing with gcode now. My GIS competition was fun too. They gave me a bunch of map data and I had to produce a report on Washington DC storm surge flood zones and potential rescue helicopter locations all within a couple hours. I recall there being a video production category too. I didn't compete in it but you'd be given props and dialogue to turn into a video over the course of a day or two. Very few of the categories were contemporaneous competitions, most were long term project presentations.

by paddy_m 9mo ago

I wish more programmers would pay attention to how productive power users in different can be with their tools. Look at CAD competitions. I wonder if there are video editting competitions?

colmmacc 9mo ago

The Oscars, The Golden Globes, the Emmys, just a few!

salviati 9mo ago
You never get to see the action there. Just the finished product.
- Waterluvian 9mo ago
  I think this may actually be two different things. Much like how being good at coding doesn’t mean it’s fun to watch you code. Though there are “performance” coders where it really is!
  - deleted 9mo ago
    [deleted]
chongli 9mo ago
Although they do have a category for best editing, it's hard to call it an award for "best film editor" when it doesn't control for the overall quality of the film. For example, with the Oscars, it's extremely common (2/3 of the time) for a film that wins best picture to also win best editing.
- anamexis 9mo ago
  I wonder how you could construct a reasonably controlled competition for film editing.
  - toast0 9mo ago
    Drop 10 hours of footage to the competitors on day 0, assign judges random groups of completed films on day N. Maybe let each editor request one reshoot in the first week, a committee aggregates similar requests, all editors get all the reshoots once they're finalized. Maybe include storyboards and a rubrik for what story the film is supposed to share and how we're meant to feel, but maybe not.
- tshaddox 9mo ago
  Perhaps that’s because Best Picture isn’t controlling for the effect that good editing has on the film.
dfxm12 9mo ago
These reward the artistry of the output of the edits, not the productivity of the editors.

lysace 9mo ago

Programming efficiency isn’t about typing/editing fast - it’s about great decision-making. Although I have seen the combo of both working out very well. If you focus on fast typing/editing skills to level up, but still have bad decision-making skills, you'll just end up burying yourself (and possibly your team) faster and more decisively. (I have seen that, too.)

orlp 9mo ago
The person you replied to stated: > how productive power users in different [fields] can be with their tools There are a lot more tools in programming than your text editor. Linters, debuggers, AI assistants, version control, continuous integration, etc. I personally know I'm terrible at using debuggers. Is this a shortcoming of mine? Probably. But I also feel debuggers could be a lot, lot better than they are right now. I think for a lot of us reflecting at our workflow and seeing things we do that could be done more efficiently with better (usage of) tooling could pay off.
- deleted 9mo ago
  [deleted]
etbebl 9mo ago
I interpreted the original comment totally differently - I thought they were saying that the programmers [who created these tools] should pay more attention to how productive [or not] power users can be with the tools [that they created]. And use that as an important metric for software quality. Which I definitely agree with.

doctorhandshake 9mo ago

I used to work as technical director for a touring live graphic design, 3D modeling, and animation tournament. It was kind of like iron chef for designers. They worked live in timed rounds with their screens projected overhead. It was sponsored by Adobe, Autodesk, and Wacom. It was pretty impressive to see how power users did their thing for sure.

bost-ty 9mo ago
Hi! Do you remember the name of that competition? Super interested in that. I've seen your work at Hard Work Party before, by the way! Really cool stuff, glad to see you've also got the startup going as well.
- doctorhandshake 9mo ago
  Thanks! It was called Cut&Paste

analog31 9mo ago

Or any users for that matter. The familiar "I can't see how anybody can stand to use Excel" is too widespread to be dismissed as a fluke.

dyauspitr 9mo ago

There is a head to head CAD guy on Youtube. I wish I could remember his name, I’ll look it up and update this post.

DaiPlusPlus 9mo ago

> wonder if there are video editting competitions? Yes - but they've turned into something I'd really rather not watch: https://www.opus.pro/agent/human-creator-vs-ai https://www.opus.pro/agent/human-creator-vs-ai

wildzzz 9mo ago

In high school, I participated in a STEM-based competition. There were a ton of categories like CO2 dragsters (my favorite), architecture, 2D and 3D CAD, GIS, and numerous others I can't remember. Some categories had more of a business focus but most were science/engineering related. The 3D CAD one was pretty fun. I recall two parts. In the first half, you got a hand-drawn sketch of a bushing and had to recreate it in Autodesk Inventor as fast as possible and then generate a 2D drawing properly dimensioned (like what you'd hand to a machinist). The second half involved creating all of the parts for a basic ceiling fan and then making an animated exploded view that also spun the fan. I was really good at that stuff back then but I definitely wasn't the quickest. I'm sure it's a lot different now, so much of CAD now involved CNC and 3D printing that's there's probably aspects that include messing with gcode now. My GIS competition was fun too. They gave me a bunch of map data and I had to produce a report on Washington DC storm surge flood zones and potential rescue helicopter locations all within a couple hours. I recall there being a video production category too. I didn't compete in it but you'd be given props and dialogue to turn into a video over the course of a day or two. Very few of the categories were contemporaneous competitions, most were long term project presentations.