A Spoonful of Sugar
Posted by anthony crumley, Wed Nov 28 07:02:00 UTC 2007
Often times we are burdened with a manual, time consuming process of some sort. It could be cleaning some data, fixing a mistake we made, analyzing some information, or making a repetitive change throughout a code base. Sometimes the process is a one time deal and others are repeat offenders. In general, these are not enjoyable experiences, but I have found that they can be.
How do these burdens become joys? By not doing them manually any more. Find a way to automate them. Scripting languages are especially good at this and are often a joy to use. Many text editors have advanced functionality that allow macros to be created for repetitive tasks. In the process you will often learn something useful that will make you a better developer.
The first objection is usually, “It takes too much time to automate. It is not worth the effort.” My experience has been that it usually doesn’t take longer. The fact that you are enjoying yourself makes you more productive and less likely to procrastinate on the distasteful task you have been assigned. Also, many of these manual processes are similar and you get better at solving them over time.
I think the wonderful Mary Poppins has said it best…
In ev'ry job that must be done There is an element of fun You find the fun and snap! The job's a game And ev'ry task you undertake Becomes a piece of cake A lark! A spree! It's very clear to see that A Spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down The medicine go down-wown The medicine go down Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down In a most delightful way