Welcome to the new home of The Slowgrammer, a safe space for people like me.
I program computers, often quite badly, and always very slowly. I have been operating in an industry which refers to high performers as “rockstars” and idealizes those who donate free labor to open source projects which are widely used commercially. This is not good. In fact, it is very bad, but if you oppose such a divisive and unegalitarian approach you’d better keep a lid on it, or you’ll struggle to find work.
But I am old, and have a number of physical reasons to ignore the idea of 10x hackers - years of violin and guitar playing, and typing badly but very fast have left me with RSIs up the wazoo. I learned to touch type late, when I realized keyboards made a difference. Around the same time I picked up a Kinesis Advantage and blew my mind.
These days I use a selection of Atreus and Ergodox boards for the most part, with different weights of clicky switches. I am a mech board FREAK and believe the only job description I will ever truly deserve is “Electrical Keyboard Operator”.
Another thing that happens to me is blockage. Sometimes my brain is full of hungry angry NOTHING, and I can’t get started. On anything. Then, I might write three weeks worth of shitty code in a morning. Bursty much, indeed; but a lot of the blockage is ADHD related, and the pathology goes one of two ways:
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I have a task, and even a plan. I get stuck on something annoying, but I WILL NOT ASK ANYONE ELSE. In the deeply pathological case it will be completely without value, like Advent of Code, and I won’t even look for clues. Eventually time passes, I am so far behind I cannot comprehend a beginning.
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I am doing work. I have a plan. I am blocked by crippling howling emptiness. Time passes, eventually I start. I realize I have rudimentary questions that need answering. So much time has passed that I cannot ask the questions without seeming like an idiot or a procrastinator or both.
The answer of course is to charge by the hour and be belligerent about the details. Include work logs when invoicing. Be up front about the situation and fully own the identity: slowgrammer.
But that’s not always possible. Let’s make a world where it’s expected.
If you haven’t rolled your eyes and left yet, and are interested in hiring me, take a look at my resume and drop me an email at hi@mhcat.ca.