Information foraging: the tricks great developers use to find solutions
We chat with Austin Henley, assistant professor of computer science at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Prof. Henley has been studying the ways in which developers seek out the information they need to solve problems, debug code, or write new applications.
You can check out some more of Henley's work on his blog here. Recent pieces include:
- A theory of how developers seek information
- All my career rejections
- Navigate your code like it's 2021
- Why is it so hard to see code from 5 minutes ago?
- An inquisitive code editor: Overcome bugs before you know you have them
How much time does the average developer spend typing in their editor versus researching, exploring, and pondering? Henley believes half an hour of inputting actual code a day is realistic, despite what you've heard about the 10X developer in your area.