To some extent, I think what you described does happen for snippets of code that are largely the same, and which one might write all the time. For example, I can write a “Hello world” program while maintaining conversation. However, as soon as you ask me to write something new, then I do have to start thinking about how to put pieces together, and can’t continue conversation.
But this also happens with driving. Speaking for myself at least, I can only maintain conversation while driving in a way that does not require me to make any decisions: (1) a route I’ve driven many times before, (2) a straight piece of road that might be unfamiliar, but does not require making any decisions.
If you put me in a new city where I don’t know where the streets are and how the traffic works, my conversational ability is much decreased (unless sitting at a red light, and perhaps even then, if I’m wondering where to turn next).
Programming tends to be like driving in new cities all the time. The difference we observe is really that we do most of our driving as a chore (same route, similar conditions each time) whereas we usually try to avoid that in programming (re-writing code we’ve already written several times, in similar conditions each time).
Sorry, I don’t check this place often.
To some extent, I think what you described does happen for snippets of code that are largely the same, and which one might write all the time. For example, I can write a “Hello world” program while maintaining conversation. However, as soon as you ask me to write something new, then I do have to start thinking about how to put pieces together, and can’t continue conversation.
But this also happens with driving. Speaking for myself at least, I can only maintain conversation while driving in a way that does not require me to make any decisions: (1) a route I’ve driven many times before, (2) a straight piece of road that might be unfamiliar, but does not require making any decisions.
If you put me in a new city where I don’t know where the streets are and how the traffic works, my conversational ability is much decreased (unless sitting at a red light, and perhaps even then, if I’m wondering where to turn next).
Programming tends to be like driving in new cities all the time. The difference we observe is really that we do most of our driving as a chore (same route, similar conditions each time) whereas we usually try to avoid that in programming (re-writing code we’ve already written several times, in similar conditions each time).