Time Preference, Quality, Dopamine and Marshmallows
•Download as PPTX, PDF•
1 like•195 views
Some thoughts on the time preference effect, and how it interacts with making code quality decisions.
Recommended
More Related Content
Similar to Time Preference, Quality, Dopamine and Marshmallows
Similar to Time Preference, Quality, Dopamine and Marshmallows (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Time Preference, Quality, Dopamine and Marshmallows
- 1. Time preference, quality, dopamine, and marshmallows Lunch and Learn, June 2017
- 2. Dopamine
- 4. You know about dopamine already. All the fun stuff.
- 6. Dopamine (or the anticipation of) makes you more likely to make a snap decision. Source: Salk’s Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory, San Diego, 2017. Publisher: Neuron.
- 9. We value short-term reward over long-term reward. The longer the gap between rewards, the worse the effect.
- 10. We prioritise dopamine release above all else when we’re using our unconscious mind.
- 11. As time passes, we suffer less from these manipulations. (This leads to “wise elders”. Or better pattern matching. But that is another talk.)
- 12. The instincts still remain — but awareness is a powerful antidote.
- 13. How does this affect the craft of writing code?
- 15. Testing
- 16. Tests give confidence, accomplishment, and they save time. (this is all about time preference, remember?)
- 17. Tests can feel like an interruption. This is a perfect example of the struggle against the time preference effect.
- 18. We need to reframe the situation. Where is the short term reward?
- 19. Tests help us decide when it’s good enough.
- 20. Tests let you move on to the next problem.
- 21. Tests let you turn the light green.
- 22. Tests are your way of helping the next guy.
- 23. Reusability
- 24. Reusability and modularity leads to better software, which is quicker to build. (eg. generic implementations, function extraction)
- 25. It requires additional effort and thinking at the point of creation to get this right. That seems like a long-term reward.
- 26. Build pull requests around modules. Receive feedback and social validation. You will become a better developer.
- 27. Open your code. $ touch README.md $ curl -d'{ "copyright": “FARM Digital" }’ https://farm.mit-license.org > LICENSE
- 28. Permanent accomplishment is actually a short term reward.
- 29. Documentation
- 31. It’s just explanation for the next person. Future us or future others aren’t always a priority. Your mental state is in the problem, not the documentation.
- 32. Create clear rules. This allows us to find little bursts of success… … and lowers the mental effort to get started.
- 33. Good documentation helps modularity. And tests are documentation.
- 34. Summary
- 35. These are only suggestions. It’s up to you to balance immediate satisfaction and long-term value.
- 36. “I can resist everything except temptation.” Oscar Wilde
Editor's Notes
- Some ideas about psychology and work.
- Love, reward, addiction, power.
- Subtle gamification. People invent and interact with gamified systems, but rarely invent their own.
- Key point is *anticipation*. We all know how powerful this effect is. Why you go for a beer after work and not a run.
- The Time Preference Effect. An excuse to show this video.
- Unconscious is the key point.
- The instincts are hard-wired and can’t be unlearned.
- Cover three topics of the ‘craft’. Not really the problem solving, that’s too personal, but the externalities of your problem solving.
- Tests are universally a good thing. Sidebar: We are slipping in this area.
- The symbol of a job well done.
- A fresh start, a new problem, meaningful progress.
- Red/green is a powerful too in gamification. Did you noticed Github’s contribution chart uses green blocks and not red? The only green thing on Github.
- We’re wired for community-building and social cohesion. You just accrued some karma.
- So again, it’s time to reframe this as a short-term gain…
- Modules, not necessarily tickets, or time-boxes.
- The next step is to publish where you can. We have flirted with this in the past, we want to get back there again.
- This may seem like a long-term payoff — and it is — but the feeling of something sliding into place is real accomplishment. Modules which are well thought out stand the test of time. Some of the most rewarding work is on things like project-base.
- Documentation carries baggage. Really it’s just a conversation. When searching for short-term rewars, future us and future others often aren’t in your frame of mind.
- Documentation is something which can be easily systemised. It’s a single-solve problem.
- Close the circle.
- Breaking down tasks into small wins isn’t a new concept. But it does work. And sometimes we face challenges at a scale where the finish line seems a long way down the track.