Week 3: Geeks and Writing

First off, welcome to my CSC148 course log (or SLOG for short). This little blog will remain a collection of my thoughts and opinions for the semester. So to kick things off, this week I'm going to cover a simple topic: why geeks should write.  Well, what exactly does "writing" encompass anyways? Personally, it represents an ability to communicate ideas effectively, keep notes concisely, and ultimately serves as a tool amongst many others that aids in preserving key points - whether they are debug logs, thoughts on tackling an assignment or even persuading others.

I recall that in my previous introduction to computer programing (via Python) in CSC108, the professor utilized a point of view that I had not considered. Plainly stated, he essentially taught us to "solve the problem in plain English first, and then work on chunks of code at a time". What this means to me, and as a testament to geeks and writing, is that a fundamental grasp of common English can serve as the stepping stone to approaching harder problems.

If you can logically piece together the problem at hand using English, you have already accomplished two key components to solving the problem:

1. You spent a good deal of time simply sitting there and dissecting the problem from head to toe to fully understand it.
2. Continuing from above, you have also generated a method to "connect the dots" from each piece of the problem

Perhaps I'm understating the importance of writing in the technological field with only one example: in my humble opinion, each programming language is complete with its own set of "grammar" so to say, much like modern languages do, in addition to coding "conventions". As a quick example to demonstrate what I mean, some languages mandate the use of semicolons, while others provide easier methods to accomplish specific tasks without having to write your own functions - in this sense, computer languages are moderately comparable to widespread common languages such as English as well.

Following this train of thought, if you consider yourself an adequate programmer, then you have a firm grasp on the "do's" and "don't's" of the language, and different approaches to efficiently communicate your solution and/or problems. In this sense, writing in plain English accompanies and bolsters your ability to not only better document your works, but to convey yourself as a programmer in a better way.

To briefly sum up this rambling post, geeks should write. Literally. It helps yourself as a person and as a programmer to convey yourself, again, as a person and as a programmer to the people you meet, people you work with, and the people you want to show off to. Kind of like this blog :)