June 26, 2026 | tags: tech, -- (permalink)

I recently discovered that I am an awful programmer. In the sense that the way I think is a little bit slow and with a lot of limitations for dealing with certain problems that demand more from my brain than I can handle. A recent example is my strugle to memorize 2x2 Rubik's cube algorithms. In theory it should be easier than the regular 3x3 one and so that's why I proposed myself to solve it. However, when I manage to advance in a part of it, I already forgot a particular state that I had to keep in mind.

A similar and more palpable example is making large numbers subtractions in your head. If you get a two numbers with 3 or 4 you might still manage, but when you start doing with 5 or 6 digits, things start to feel a bit too much.

That's how I am thinking about being a good programmer: you have a very well developed cognitive muscle. Large cognitive loads are no problem for good programmers. The amount of info in a syntax or the detail of getting things in a particular state is no problem. In fact, I think state management in your brain actually helps in dealing with debugging, reading or understanding code that has layers and layers of cognitive load. And that's why, if you don't pay attention, this might make you a bad software engineer.

Being aware of code management and readability is something that my very limited cognitive load helps me to think about when I am dealing with writing code. Also when reading, but usually I manage to use tools such a notepad or a sheet of paper (I don't like to use editors to keep track of my problem modeling while I am coding). So usually the tests and designs of my code are quite lean and user oriented: because at the end I am writing for myself as the main user, but that is useful for others as well.

I need to become a good programmer and I've been thinking in the ways on how to better be one. Debugging and bug finding is still something that having a good cognitive load helps (also a keen eye for syntax detail), but for now being aware of what is interesting to be mindful of while creating helps.