> "I want my feedback to be so fast that I can't think before it shows up. If I can think, then I'll sometimes lose attention, and I don't want to lose attention."
Don't you want to think while programming? I feel like that's practically all I do -- I spend most of my time thinking about a problem and very little actually writing code.
Ironic that your reply to a piece about strawmen is nothing but a strawman. Of course he is not meaning what you're saying, he's talking about context switching. If I have to wait 15 seconds for my tests to run, I start doing something else and my thought process around the problem is gone.
If you move on to the next problem, then your test finishes and forces you to move back to the original problem then you just had to do 2 context switches. If you never had to wait for the test result then you could have eliminated those.
No, I really don't want to think while coding 90% of the code I write. I listen to audiobooks and podcasts while coding to keep my mind occupied while I code. I want instant feedback, else I'm going to quickly check reddit or HN, and then I've lost 15 minutes to a 45 second test.
If you'd ever seen Gary code, you'd know that he is a very quick thinker (almost nonhuman like) that requires very fast feedback loop to keep up the pace.
Don't you want to think while programming? I feel like that's practically all I do -- I spend most of my time thinking about a problem and very little actually writing code.