Yesterday I got fed up, I wanted to create a 2 folders inside a folder, and a file inside one of the subfolder. I searched and could not get a GNU/Linux command for it, so I wanted to create my own tool and so created mk3 or make tree.

While I tried to write code for it, I got it all wrong, I took a break concentrated on other activities and the code just appeared out of nowhere. This time it took in account the power of Ruby programming language’s latest features, I coded it, and it worked like charm.

This is not the first time, for very complex stuff I would go on to a state where I would just eat, watch T.V with chips, just do nothing, watch music video’s keep playing games. Sometimes I get flashes where I can see the code I imagined first getting refined, then that moment comes, may be every after 2 or 3 lazy days, the perfect answer. I would code it and it would work. It would take into account all the files I have checked to learn about the issue. It’s like magic, the Qui of coding. I don’t know how it works, but it does.

The I.T industry still thinks coding is like tightening bolts in a factory. No matter how modern a company wants to be seen, they want people to say how long they have worked. That’s rubbish I say. Have we found a way to meter thought? Have we found a way to continuously monitor brains energy usage? Have we found a way to measure efficiency of one brains neural structure?

I was once in a company called Zanec, my friends used to say a guy called Varadharajan used to sit behind me and note what I was doing, I used to watch music videos to clear off my brain for the Qui to happen, that poor guy might have not programmed in his life, he thought programming productivity was linearly proportional to the time spent before computers and chugging the keyboard. Thinking of those days brings me laughter. It also angers me to think how may life’s that guy had spoiled. But people like that survive in I.T companies where percapita employee productivity and earning is very low.

I coded for another company Lumera, where it’s boss Venkatesh required us to have four meetings a day, one at morning 10:30 where we need to say what we plan to do today, at 2PM where we need to say what we have achieved till now, and I think at 5:30 PM for another status meeting. Apart from that we had a meeting at 7:30PM with client. It was hell coding there. You were under constant pressure to prepare for your speeches at the meeting. Apart from that if I said something if the boss did not like I need to have another calls with him which will drag and drag.

One of the person who had worked there also told me that the boss called her and told that she should not have lunch breaks more than 30 minutes. A foodie herself she was put down. I also wished he told us how much time we could pee and poo. Another guy said, before I could join there, there will be a live Zoom call from 2PM - 4PM where they have to turn cameras on and code so that the boss can watch, so they do not sleep after lunch. Sadly though the company made money, it was very unproductive, made things insanely complicated, and hence people felt content putting a lot of effort into code to make small things happen and felt great about doing lot of inefficient work.

I authored a tool called doneit, it’s a work logging app. I initially gave free trails to my friends, many of them came back to me and said it has got no way to log time, then “how can we measure productivity?” they asked. I sweet talked them, put down the phone, banged my head and felt sorry for the people who work under them.

In I.T industry, when it comes to programming, the measure of productivity is what you have done, it doesn’t matter about the time. Your code should be understandable and scalable. That’s it.

I am not sure how many programmers out there are working under non programming bosses who still have the industrial age mindset. I pity them, but to be productive, be shameless in the number of breaks you take and the time you take for breaks. Your brain is processing stuff subconsciously, and it will come out with the best solution.