12 December 2024

Atomic thoughts

Matt Gemmell:

Don't plan or summarise in prose. Don't write in monolithic manuscripts. Don't code in complex routines. Not only are these approaches unmaintainable, requiring a burdensome amount of contextual information and recall in order to even be usable, but they degrade your quality of thought. The wider the angle, the fuzzier the details, because there are more of them. Get closer, though, and the fine detail becomes clear.

I've always kinda tried to sorta adhere to this principle of breaking things down to its atomic components. It comes naturally to me in verbal discussions. Much less so when it comes to planning and execution. My tendency to plan and summarise in prose has taken the wind out of many good ideas.

Need to practice the principle of breaking everything down into atomic parts.