Dyslexic Programmers
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I had a programmer on the team who was dyslexic. He did a good job despite the fact that he made more mistakes while coding. A good codereview solved that problem.
WM.
What about weapons of mass-construction?code reviews do help. and often and frequently.. and infact, more than once it has helped out other areas in the system cos it forces us to slow things down and consider more deliberately what's going on :) it's just that there's so much "new" information out there that has to be consumed- sifting out the good from the bad and the ugly is easy.. if u can read... not so, if u can't and that slows other things down....
:: have the courage to use your own reason
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:) how do you cope with learning new things ALL the time though? blogs, msdn, code project, books, etc... how do u manage to keep up reading/grasping new ideas everyday?
:: have the courage to use your own reason
Quiet simply... I don't... I just try and pick what I think would be useful and follow that for awhile... I do most of my learning of new stuff by reading sample code and x-ref with MSDN or other docs like RFCs. I find that I have to be able to make the whole concept as abstract as possible for me to understand it... solid examples are good but often I find them too limiting in a way.
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homegrown wrote:
and u're spont on with yr last comment.. cos...
:laugh:
homegrown wrote:
he can slowly get things wrong
That's a good one! :laugh: By the way, I'm in Australia, so ... you might not get it in America :~ The name of the issue: mmhh ... One big headline on the cover is "The Science of BURNOUT" The particular article I'm referring to: "Age at Work"
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LOL :D not in this case. my interest in this case is that i'm team lead for our group and he is one of the programmers i am responsible for growing. i've never had to deal with it before so i'm trying to find ways of facilitating his growth. if it means i have to draw more pictures and that helps... great! and if anyone has got experience in this field, i'd love to hear what they've tried... btw: we do use voive recordings and loads of diagrams- very little text. but the primary area where we can impact effectively is if i/we can help him decipher what's important to read and what not [blogs, newsletters, forums, msdn, books, etc...] and then to summarise that information in a way he can grasp- faster and with less frustration than he is experiencing now.... as a team we help each other out, right? and being the only one on the team there's def, i believe, something we can do more for him in this respect... those with the ability have the responsibility someone once sed in a movie quoting a president [i think] :)
:: have the courage to use your own reason
I personally would try and avoid going overboard with it all... other wise you start getting into 'special' meetings and the like, where you end up treating the poor guy like some freak. When in fact he is no more of a freak then someone who has black hair instead of brown. By all means do try and help but don't go overboard unless asked too. /me is bitter from personal exercise of being in the 'special' groups at school and college.
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So I wrote a nice long reply and FAJKKJA'ng internet stalls on me. Post lost.... This is the type of thing that makes me fustrated. :mad::mad::mad::mad:
homegrown wrote:
but how *could* we help him get past those frustrations so that he can get closer to expressing at the same speed?
- Keep his tasks clear and unambigous. Avoid multi-tasking the person. - Keep tasks/goals short (1-3 days). - 'Tease' him with the next task while he is busy with current one, this will help him visualize possible solutions, and even get excited about it. This will also help making the new task more familiar and shortening the "where do i start?" phase.
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xacc.ide-0.2.0.50 - now with partial MSBuild support!
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perfect. thanks!
leppie wrote:
Avoid multi-tasking the person
ja. i do it so easily and even without coffee, but u're right. doing this [in hindsight] has not been the best move... i'm not sure about the last one though.. but i guess as long i don't cross into the multi-task zone and distractions and manage the teasing effectively...
:: have the courage to use your own reason
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Quiet simply... I don't... I just try and pick what I think would be useful and follow that for awhile... I do most of my learning of new stuff by reading sample code and x-ref with MSDN or other docs like RFCs. I find that I have to be able to make the whole concept as abstract as possible for me to understand it... solid examples are good but often I find them too limiting in a way.
Justin Cobb wrote:
I find that I have to be able to make the whole concept as abstract as possible for me to understand it... solid examples are good but often I find them too limiting in a way.
too limiting... ? how so?
:: have the courage to use your own reason
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I personally would try and avoid going overboard with it all... other wise you start getting into 'special' meetings and the like, where you end up treating the poor guy like some freak. When in fact he is no more of a freak then someone who has black hair instead of brown. By all means do try and help but don't go overboard unless asked too. /me is bitter from personal exercise of being in the 'special' groups at school and college.
agreed totally.. and all this is really in response to us agreeing that if we can use things to help *everyone*.. then we do it. and likewise, there are some hangups from 'special' groups which we both [all three of us now :)] agree which leave emotional baggage best left where it was abandoned. and it's not about pity or sympath or excuses or special consideration.. it's about finding out if there's a better way for all of us to communicate [within our team] so that we can continue deliver with the same track record we have to date [in 2 years, we have missed only one deadline by 1 day!] but with less frustration and more expediency-> and that's from him as well as myself...
:: have the courage to use your own reason
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Allctauy, trhee wree smoe aleticrs a wlhie bcak aoubt how we dno't pay aentieotn to the ltetres in the mdidle of the wrod but can sitll ustarednnd the stencene.
Logifusion[^] If not entertaining, write your Congressman.
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agreed totally.. and all this is really in response to us agreeing that if we can use things to help *everyone*.. then we do it. and likewise, there are some hangups from 'special' groups which we both [all three of us now :)] agree which leave emotional baggage best left where it was abandoned. and it's not about pity or sympath or excuses or special consideration.. it's about finding out if there's a better way for all of us to communicate [within our team] so that we can continue deliver with the same track record we have to date [in 2 years, we have missed only one deadline by 1 day!] but with less frustration and more expediency-> and that's from him as well as myself...
:: have the courage to use your own reason
Fair enough, it just I was worried that it was a 'How do I interact with this freak?' kinda thing. I stand corrected in fact it is not that, it just a 'Any one know a good way to do...' question.
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Fair enough, it just I was worried that it was a 'How do I interact with this freak?' kinda thing. I stand corrected in fact it is not that, it just a 'Any one know a good way to do...' question.
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Justin Cobb wrote:
I find that I have to be able to make the whole concept as abstract as possible for me to understand it... solid examples are good but often I find them too limiting in a way.
too limiting... ? how so?
:: have the courage to use your own reason
They don't show the "big picture". I struggle with that too - if the concepts behind a sample aren't clear, I have difficulty seeing its relevance most of the time. When that happens I'll skim an article, classify it as "boring" and go looking for something more relevant (and therefore interesting).
Anna :rose: Currently working mostly on: Visual Lint :cool: Anna's Place | Tears and Laughter "Be yourself - not what others think you should be" - Marcia Graesch "Anna's just a sexy-looking lesbian tart" - A friend, trying to wind me up. It didn't work.
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They don't show the "big picture". I struggle with that too - if the concepts behind a sample aren't clear, I have difficulty seeing its relevance most of the time. When that happens I'll skim an article, classify it as "boring" and go looking for something more relevant (and therefore interesting).
Anna :rose: Currently working mostly on: Visual Lint :cool: Anna's Place | Tears and Laughter "Be yourself - not what others think you should be" - Marcia Graesch "Anna's just a sexy-looking lesbian tart" - A friend, trying to wind me up. It didn't work.
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Allctauy, trhee wree smoe aleticrs a wlhie bcak aoubt how we dno't pay aentieotn to the ltetres in the mdidle of the wrod but can sitll ustarednnd the stencene.
Logifusion[^] If not entertaining, write your Congressman.
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thanks. good to know... i know some areas where we can include "big picture" discussions more frequently within the dev process... actually a bit of a light-bulb moment going on here :D thank you!
:: have the courage to use your own reason
Anytime. :)
Anna :rose: Currently working mostly on: Visual Lint :cool: Anna's Place | Tears and Laughter "Be yourself - not what others think you should be" - Marcia Graesch "Anna's just a sexy-looking lesbian tart" - A friend, trying to wind me up. It didn't work.
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Allctauy, trhee wree smoe aleticrs a wlhie bcak aoubt how we dno't pay aentieotn to the ltetres in the mdidle of the wrod but can sitll ustarednnd the stencene.
Logifusion[^] If not entertaining, write your Congressman.
Now replace the first and last letters with each other.
This statement is false.
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code reviews do help. and often and frequently.. and infact, more than once it has helped out other areas in the system cos it forces us to slow things down and consider more deliberately what's going on :) it's just that there's so much "new" information out there that has to be consumed- sifting out the good from the bad and the ugly is easy.. if u can read... not so, if u can't and that slows other things down....
:: have the courage to use your own reason
Never noticed that he had much more trouble analysing and using information from the internet or from books. Ok, he was a little slower reading material, but not that much more slower that we could notice it on the schedule or anything. I just made sure he had an hour extra on a task, where reading and processing information was involved, that normally took 3 hours. It's those little things that make it that much better for him. I know this kind of measures cost more time, thus more money, but I dont care. Lets say the customer has to pay for 10 more hours on the project, and that while he payed 30 hours less because we were done ahead of time :D (This is a rare ocassion, but it does happen sometimes)
WM.
What about weapons of mass-construction? -
Justin Cobb wrote:
I find that I have to be able to make the whole concept as abstract as possible for me to understand it... solid examples are good but often I find them too limiting in a way.
too limiting... ? how so?
:: have the courage to use your own reason
My mind just has a hard time intergrating them into my mental model, as it were. My mind kinda things of lots things at once and from different angles so an abstract view makes it easier for me to 'process' them, since I can came at it from different angles too.
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Never noticed that he had much more trouble analysing and using information from the internet or from books. Ok, he was a little slower reading material, but not that much more slower that we could notice it on the schedule or anything. I just made sure he had an hour extra on a task, where reading and processing information was involved, that normally took 3 hours. It's those little things that make it that much better for him. I know this kind of measures cost more time, thus more money, but I dont care. Lets say the customer has to pay for 10 more hours on the project, and that while he payed 30 hours less because we were done ahead of time :D (This is a rare ocassion, but it does happen sometimes)
WM.
What about weapons of mass-construction?thanks. buffering in extra time does/has helped- but u still have him almost "labouring" through the information each time... so let me pose a fresh challenge :) what if you went a little further, and say, for example.. summarised/filtered/represented the information in such a way that he could comprehend "at normal speed"? what would that process look like .. and.. if that filter process worked well for dyslexia- how effective would it be for everyone else in summarising and understanding .. ? this is all driven by a gut feel that there simply *must* be a better way of doing things where we can all benefit... could be a wild goose chase though, but... it's interesting enough to at least pose the question :)
:: have the courage to use your own reason
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My mind just has a hard time intergrating them into my mental model, as it were. My mind kinda things of lots things at once and from different angles so an abstract view makes it easier for me to 'process' them, since I can came at it from different angles too.
interesting, thanks. and this ability is what makes him valuable to the team cos he can process things 'differently' which is sometimes left field but nonetheless very useful... it's bridging the abstract down to the detail which takes time... but if i understand you correctly, if the abstract is well presented- getting down to detail will be 'easier'?
:: have the courage to use your own reason