March 27, 2022

Getting things done (in small increments)

[Whoops, this was supposed to go out earlier this week! Sorry for the delay. 😬]

I just published a new blog post: Getting things done (in small increments). It started with an observation on Twitter:

In the conversation that followed, there were some questions and suggestions about concrete ways about how to learn to focus more quickly. I reflected on the habits and techniques I've found useful, and decided to write something up.

I still think that having large blocks of uninterrupted time is ideal — but I'm glad that I've found ways to be productive in smaller chunks of time.

More ways of handling user input

Earlier this year, I published Three ways of handling user input, in which I compared the different approaches using a small challenge problem:

The goal is to implement a square that you can either drag and drop, or click. The code should distinguish between the two gestures: a click shouldn’t just be treated as a drop with no drag. Finally, when you’re dragging, pressing escape should abort the drag and reset the object back to its original position.

Since then, a couple of people have offered their own take on the problem:

Both systems (Céu and Syndicate) are well worth a look if you're not familiar with them.

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That's all for now. Until next time,

Patrick