In Anthony Bourdain's book Kitchen Confidential he writes about the moves of a chef as part of a larger philosophy of kitchen efficiency and professionalism. He says that there are economies of motion and that the best chefs minimize unnecessary movements. They are intentional with their actions and move with grace. The book is full of insights into the cooking industry and this is one that really stuck with me. Coding has a similar moves and as part of my goal setting in 2025, I am thinking about how I can improve them. I will now elaborate on what these moves are and how I am thinking about improving them.
First, every programmer wants to be a better typist. How fast I type is directly related to how fast I can code. I consider myself to be a fair typest, around 70 words-per-minute, but there are lots of improvements I can make in my typing. In particular I don't utilize the left shift enough. I've worked with some team members who use split ergonomic keyboards and type above 110 words-per-minute and it is truly inspiring to watch.
Second, every programmer wishes they had faster and better reading comprehension. My job requires reading lots of documentation. The ability to read and absorb new material is directly related to how quickly I can crush tickets.
Third, every programmer wishes they could use a computer faster. Many great programmers know this already and create great personalizations and optimizations on their own computers. These include things like Hammerspoon for Mac or AutoHotKey for Windows, or utilizing alias for common long commands.
This year I want to do a better job of reviewing my moves and becoming even more efficient at my job. For me this is an evergreen subject, my moves can always be further improved and I can always become a more efficient programmer. It's January, and the new year has given me a moment of reflection on how I can set new goals around improving my moves.
First, I am going to try to utilize vim more. My vim skills are pretty weak, and I think utilizing vim-like prowess over my editors will make me utilize the mouse less and ultimately code faster. I am going to try my best to write all my blog posts using vim this year.
Second, I am going to try to utilize the left shift more. This is my slowest typing move and I need to learn to utilize the left shift without hesitation.
Finally, I got a new mac and I want to do a better job with window management and my reliance on using mac spaces. Switching between spaces and managing different spaces takes time and I want to explore other patterns for managing multiple windows. This will take some exploring, but I am looking forward to doing that research.