Comment by bitwize
2 days ago
I have a bit I do where I do Carmack's voice in a fictional interview that goes something like this:
Lex Fridman: So of all the code you've written, is there any that you particularly like?
Carmack: I think the vertex groodlizer from Quake is probably the code I'm most proud of. See, it turns out that the Pentium takes a few cycles too long to render each frame and fails to hit its timing window unless the vertices are packed in canonically groodlized format. So I took a weekend, 16-hour days, and just read the relevant papers and implemented it in code over that weekend, and it basically saved the whole game.
The point being that not only is he a genius, but he also has an insane grindset that allows him to talk about doing something incredibly arcane and complex over a weekend -- devoting all his time to it -- the way you and I talk about breakfast.
Another weird thing about Carmack, now that you mention it -- and Romero, coincidentally -- is their remarkable ability to remember technical challenges they've solved over time.
For whatever reason the second I've solved a problem or fixed a bug, it basically autopurges from my memory when I start on the next thing.
I couldn't tell you the bugs I fixed this morning, let along the "groodilizer" I optimized 20 years ago.
Oh btw Jank is awesome and Jaeye is great guy, and also a game industry dev!
The trick for remembering those things is debriefing with other devs and then documenting. And then keep talking about it.
I don't do mind blowing stuff like Carmack but: just yesterday I came across a bug that helps supporting my thesis that "splitting methods by LOC" can cause subtle programmer mistakes. Wanna write a blog post about it asap.
Yup this is the way.
I find it's actually a good guideline for what to work on. If I'm 1, 3, 6, 12 months into a job or some other project and I can't remember what I was doing X months ago it tends to mean that I'm not improving during that period of time either.
Carmack is always trying to get better, do more, push the envelope further. He was never in it for money or fame, he was in it to be the best near as I can tell. And he's still among the truly terrifying hackers you wouldn't want to be up against, he just never stopped. You get that with a lot of the people I admire and try to emulate as best I can, Thompson comes to mind, Lamport, bunch of people. They just keep getting more badass from meeting their passion to the grave, a lifelong project of unbounded commitment to excellence in their craft.
That's who I look up to.
I tend to (more easily) remember things that frustrate me but I overcome. Annoyance is a real factor in it.
I like this word, 'grindset'