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Comment by Anon84 | Hacker News Reader

My brain.

It's amazing how much time you can save if you analyze the problem a bit more deeply. It's much easier to use the correct algorithm/implementation if you truly understand the problem.

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I would have to agree here. The productivity gains are remarkable when one takes the time to think a little bit before typing, or learn more keyboard shortcuts for Emacs/Vim, or be able to apprehend a holistic view of the application and problem domain.

A second note: Emacs is the one piece of software that makes me the most productive.

I would have to agree with thinking as well. When I first started programming I would just brute force my through whatever problem. After some years I realized that the 3rd or 4th iteration of something was commonly the best solution and the rest were crap. Then I realized I could skip the coding for iterations 2 and 3 and just think about the problem a little harder, and go do some reading about it. Thinking works and it saves me a lot of time and frustration. Learn an editor Emacs or Vim. I like Vim. Learn a scripting language Perl or Python. I like them both, for me Python gets the edge.

Pen and paper help, too.

agreed. a whiteboard helps, too!

Or a blackboard. I love chalk!

The Feynman Problem-Solving Algorithm: (1) write down the problem; (2) think very hard; (3) write down the answer.

Deeper analysis can help, but I have found I often get better returns from forcing myself to simply contemplate a problem shallowly and more broadly for a while before I start digging. Taking the time to make sure you are analysing the right problem.

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