Why do you suck at juggling now?

ssurprisetalk 12 days ago 50 commentsRead Article on pgadey.ca

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laszlojamf•about 3 hours ago

I've been working as a software developer for about ten years, and I've started to get a little annoyed when my manager asks me what I'm gonna work on improving this year. Like what can I say? That I'll try get better at coding? That I'll get better at project management? At some point the marginal utility is just not there anymore. Even if I did get twice as good (whatever that means) at systems design, it's not like there is _that_ much systems design to go around at work that it would actually be noticeable.

What do senior developers say they'll work on improving in their performance reviews?

ludston•about 2 hours ago

Instead of talking about skills, or personal efficiency, talk about technologies that you're going to introduce to your product, or some specific difficult problem that you're intending to solve.

Another next career step is to take ownership of things without needing to be asked or told, to create and execute plans, to raise and address problems pro-actively etc. And if your workspace doesn't give you opportunities to do it, and you want career progression, then go somewhere else.

ChrisSD•about 3 hours ago

Like all such metrics, the specifics don't really matter. All that matters is that you can tell a story, over the course of the year, on how you've "improved". The goal is to use the story to highlight the work you've been doing while passing it off as evidence. This kind of story telling is something people in management positions tend to be very good at but it's also a skill people not in management should have some proficiency in.

Benanov•about 3 hours ago

Soft skills, mostly - you just find things that you're weak on (since you know enough to know where you suck) and just work on those.

rokkamokka•about 3 hours ago

Like every other such question, simply make up whatever they want to hear

kurthr•about 3 hours ago

Ask Claude to choose a set of improvements that it would rate highly.

readread•about 3 hours ago

LLMs really shine at speeding up corporate bureaucratic busy-work and nonsense.

We’re in a golden era when same busy work has not yet expanded due to LLM influence. Let’s appreciate it while it lasts.

jaffa2•about 3 hours ago

Just tell him you are working on juggling 5 balls.

scandox•about 2 hours ago

Lesson is actually: if you want to blow people's minds then practice secretly. An appearance of effortlessness. Sprezzatura. Whatever it is, it seems to be the only thing that impresses the average person.

evilduck•about 2 hours ago

"The only secret of magic is that I'm willing to work harder on it than you think it's worth." - Penn Jillette

helloplanets•about 2 hours ago

People don't realize the exponential diffictlty curve with juggling. The highest amount of balls ever juggled is 11.

helsinkiandrew•about 2 hours ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJsgM-3L38U

Wow. The wikipedia page has a nice list with links to videos:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juggling_world_records#Balls

david422•about 1 hour ago

14 beanbags 14 catches

is that ... is that juggling at that point?

pgadey•about 1 hour ago

You're on to something here. It doesn't seem like a lot of catches. There's a distinction in juggling between "flashing" and "qualifying" n objects. To flash n objects, you throw and catch them n times. To qualify n objects, you throw and catch them 2n times.

It would be incredible if someone qualified 14 objects.

a3w•about 1 hour ago

0 to 3 was hard. 3 to 5 was not that hard, for me. Probably since I had to get in right mindset, first.

mikestew•about 2 hours ago

Reminds me of when I play my mandolin when I’m camping. I’m sure fellow campers think I suck, despite having played for ten years. But I’m not going to play stuff I can play in my sleep, I’m playing stuff that still needs work. So, in consideration of others, once in a while I’ll rip off a fast version of Old Dangerfield or some other song I know really well just in case someone is in earshot.

MarceColl•about 3 hours ago

What's more shocking to me is asking a person that is not even an acquaintance why they suck at juggling now.

soneca•about 2 hours ago

Tangentially there was this recent post for a very hard juggling web game where everyone will likely suck:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48963122

CaptWillard•about 2 hours ago

To be fair, I was never all that good.

incognito124•about 2 hours ago

Anecdote:

I learned juggling in approximately 12minutes with a friend who knew juggling from before. He spotted me like you would spot someone in a gym: he put the balls in my hands, told me to hit one up, caught it mid flight (effectively freezing time), and told me "ok now hit the other ball up and catch this one". After 6-7 tries my brain was reprogrammed, and by the day's end we did juggling in pairs.

I guess the moral of the story is that a great teacher can push your limits way further than you could yourself? Or that it's easier to learn in a group setting?

bluGill•about 2 hours ago

3 ball is a lot easier than 5 ball. A good teacher helps, but plenty of books exist that are good as well. Most people are not interested enough to try for 10 minutes.

jansan•about 2 hours ago

I can juggle pretty well with three objects, but I have no idea what the next step would be. Four feels like it would be no fun, because it is just juggling two balls in each hand. What is the recommended next step?

OPBoot•about 2 hours ago

Some ideas, all with three objects:

- Throw one over your shoulder/under your leg/around your back/

- catch each ball with your palm facing down instead of up

- Out->in cascade (throw from outside, catch from inside) instead of the traditional in->out

- 3 columns

- over the top (tennis)

- Any "mess"

- Any "box"

Then all of the above, but with

- 3 clubs

- 3 cigar boxes

- 3 clubs on fire

- while riding a unicycle

That should keep you going for a while

https://libraryofjuggling.com/

burpingtree•about 2 hours ago

https://libraryofjuggling.com/TricksByDifficulty.html

All tricks sorted by difficulty with animations. You can find good YouTube tutorials on most three ball tricks.

RobRivera•about 2 hours ago

Whoop