Edsger Dijkstra’s One-Day Workweek
There is much to learn from Dijkstra since Human nature is not that very different. Problem-solving requires a multifaceted approach and if we find that somebody had used a Method&#x2F;Process which gave them exceptional results then we need to extract the essence of their methodology and learn to apply them in our own individual contexts.<p>As an example w.r.t Dijkstra&#x27;s &quot;working habits&quot; here are my takeaways;<p>1) His focus on logical rigor in thinking of a Program as a sequence of &quot;Predicate Transformers&quot; (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Predicate_transformer_semantics" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Predicate_transformer_semantic...</a>) is very fundamental to thinking about programming. Even if i do not use his particular notation&#x2F;techniques, cultivating the habit of thinking about logical predicates operating in the state space of the program before writing the code which moves the state space from one to another i.e. from Pre to Post condition is essential to writing correct programs.<p>2) His emphasis on writing everything down by hand before touching a computer. The biggest problem facing a Programmer today is myriads of distractions hindering any attempt to focus and think for long stretches of time consistently. If you sit with paper&#x2F;pencil and force yourself to think and write out your thoughts&#x2F;algorithms then the above problem goes away. He famously wrote the THE OS by hand!<p>3) Learn to focus only on the absolute essentials and not on accessories like IDEs&#x2F;debuggers&#x2F;etc. Dijkstra famously stated that programming should only be taught in a precise language for which there are no compilers to machine code in order to force students to &quot;play computer&quot; and think through their program execution. Tools should be used only to augment thought but never to supplant&#x2F;short-circuit it.<p>If you look at the working habits of the great Scientists&#x2F;Geniuses almost without exception they avoided &quot;busyness&quot;, ruthlessly cut out all inessentials from their work, wrote precisely, used tools judiciously and thought deeply. This is what we need to hold on to in this day and age where we have a surfeit of everything (distractions, tools, socializing etc.) designed to hinder us at every turn.