joshuago’s programming Bookmarks

Paul Graham's innovative initial description of Bayesian spam filtering.

Putting more logic into the model rather than the controller makes the code more readable, maintainable, and testable.

The classpath is the connection between the Java runtime and the filesystem. It defines where the interpreter looks for .class files to load. The basic idea is that the filesystem hierarchy mirrors the Java package hierarchy, and the classpath specifies which directories in the filesystem serve as roots for the Java package hierarchy.

Researchers have shown it takes about ten years to develop expertise in any of a wide variety of areas, including chess playing, music composition, telegraph operation, painting, piano playing, swimming, tennis, and research in neuropsychology and topology. The key is deliberative practice: not just doing it again and again, but challenging yourself with a task that is just beyond your current ability, trying it, analyzing your performance while and after doing it, and correcting any mistakes. Then repeat. And repeat again.

The real trouble with using a lot of mediocre programmers instead of a couple of good ones is that no matter how long they work, they never produce something as good as what the great programmers can produce.