TITLE: Exceleration AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford DATE: April 30, 2013 4:53 PM DESC: ----- BODY: A student stopped in for a chat late last week to discuss the code he was writing for a Programming Languages assignment. This was the sort of visit a professor enjoys most. The student had clearly put in plenty of time on his interpreter and had studied the code we had built in class. His code already worked. He wanted to talk about ways to make his code better. Some students never reach this point before graduation. In Coders at Work, Bernie Cosell tells a story about leading teams of new hires at BBN:
I would get people -- bright, really good people, right out of college, tops of their classes -- on one of my projects. And they would know all about programming and I would give them some piece of the project to work on. And we would start crossing swords at our project-review meetings. They would say, "Why are you complaining about the fact that I have my global variables here, that I'm not doing this, that you don't like the way the subroutines are laid out? The program works." They'd be stunned when I tell them, "I don't care that the program works. The fact that you're working here at all means that I expect you to be able to write programs that work. Writing programs that work is a skilled craft and you're good at it. Now, you have to learn how to program.
I always feel that we have done our students well if we can get them to the point of caring about their craft before they leave us. Some students come to us already having this mindset, which makes for a very different undergraduate experience. Professors enjoy working these students, too. But what stood out to me most from this particular conversation was something the student said, something to this effect:
When we built the lexical addresser in class a few weeks ago, I didn't understand the idea and I couldn't write it. So I studied it over and over until I could write it myself and understand exactly why it worked. We haven't looked at lexical addressing since then, but the work I did has paid off every time we've written code to process programs in our little languages, including this assignment. And I write code more quickly on the exams now, too.
When he finished speaking, I could hardly contain myself. I wish I could bottle this attitude and give to every student who ever thinks that easy material is an opportunity to take it easy in a course for a while. Or who thinks that the best response to difficult material is to wait for something easier to come along next chapter. Both situations are opportunities to invest energy in the course. The returns on investment are deeper understanding of the material, sharper programming skills, and the ability to get stuff done. This student is reaping now the benefits of an investment he made five weeks ago. It's a gift that will keep on giving long after this course is over. I encourage students to approach their courses and jobs in this way, but the message doesn't always stick. As Clay Stone from City Slickers might say, I'm happy as a puppy with two peters whenever it does. While walking this morning, I coined a word for this effect: exceleration. It's a portmanteau combining "excellence" and "acceleration", which fits this phenomenon well. As with compound interest and reinvested dividends, this sort of investment builds on its self over time. It accelerates learners on their path to mastering their craft. Whatever you call it, that conversation made my week. -----