Pickabar Blog

Wean yourself off of the mouse. For some of you, hopefully very few, that will mean learning to touch type. For others that will mean becoming more comfortable with common hot keys and shortcuts. Regardless, everything you can do to wean yourself off of dependence on the mouse can only help.

Why? Well, every time you have to use the mouse you have to:

1. stop typing
2. raise at least one hand off of the keyboard
3. move your hand to the mouse
4. locate your cursor on the screen
5. move the cursor to the location on the screen where you need it
6. execute your action
7. place your hand back on the keyboard
8. resume typing

Compare and contrast this with the purely keyboard based steps:

1. stop typing
2. execute your action
3. resume typing

I think using the keyboard as much as possible is a clear winner. That’s without adding yet another disadvantage for usage of the mouse…you have to take your eyes off of what you’re actually working on. I’m not trying to suggest that using the keyboard is better than using the mouse for every single action you’ll do over the course of the day. Just almost all of them.

Some may find the title of this post a bit misleading. Shouldn’t I have mentioned design patterns, or Ruby, or unit testing, or agile programming or something? Well, there are tons of posts about that kind of heady stuff, written by much smarter folks than I. On the other hand, there aren’t so many posts about the nitty gritty of being a professional developer from a Morts point of view.

Would you hire a chef to work at your restaurant if she couldn’t use knives well to prepare food? Of course not. It’s hard to even concentrate on a chef’s creativity, knowledge, experience and taste if she’s not at least competent in the basics. More than that, it says something about the chef’s viewpoint on what it means to be a chef if she isn’t willing to invest some time in mastering the basics. I used to be friends with a newly graduated chef, and it always struck me as interesting just how interested he was in his knives. Now I understand.

This morning while getting ready for work, I gave Sarah a lecture about not posting to her blog…then I…uh…anyway, more posts will be coming dear pickabar readers. To make that happen, I’m going to stop looking for deeply held convictions and fresh thoughts and just start pumping out my half baked ideas. Enjoy!

By now you’ve probably heard about Bill Gate’s decision cease his day to day involvement with Microsoft’s business. I’ve read and heard quite a lot about that unexpected news, but ubergeek posts Joel Spolsky’s post “My First BillG Review” was by far the most thought provoking. Highly recommended.

Best quote?

Watching non-programmers trying to run software companies is like watching someone who doesn’t know how to surf trying to surf.

Robert Scoble (unofficial chief blogger for the borg) is leaving Microsoft, and I tend to think that’s a good thing. Don’t get my wrong, his Scobleizer Blog is one of my favorite blogs, and Robert seems like a sincere and passionate fan of technology. On the other hand, his larger than life presence seems to have distorted the Microsoft blogosphere a bit into a cult of personality.

How about a real world experience to shed light on my thinking?

I attended my first and only geek dinner in NYC about a year ago…and I was unimpressed. More than anything, it reminded me of High School. The coolest kids were the center of attention, and everyone else quickly settled into an orbit appropriate for their level of coolness and desire to promote themselves. I can’t exclude myself from that, as I went to the dinner with the express intention of discussing life in the Borg field with Robert. I envisioned a long conversation with him about the work I had done as a Microsoft employee after Sept. 11th, only a few blocks away from where the Geek Dinner was held.

The reality was that I never got a word in to Robert. I did what I always do in those type of situations. I picked a seat as far away from the epicenter as possible, and sat there quietly. I had a few short conversations with other attendees, but I could always detect that their attention was split 50% between what we were discussing, and 50% coming up with strategies to get closer to Robert.

Maybe Robert’s leaving will do something to end the similar overwhelming fixation with him in the Microsoft corner of the blogosphere? Or maybe not, since so many of us are still posting about him.

Personally, I turn to reputable dev blogs when I absolutely positively have to find the right info to solve those intractable coding issues that arise from time to time…then if all else fails, I search the official docs . Well, the new MSDN Wiki has been announced, adding another arrow to my quiver.