breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into...... (1 Viewer)

[Uncle Gizmo]

Somebody wrote me a very nice email complimenting me on my YouTube videos... The main takeaway for me from the email message was that they found my breaking down of things into simple steps very helpful...


And then,just now, I'm researching some code in the Microsoft forum and I found this quote by Mark Twain:-

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small, manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one" - Mark Twain

Now I realise he wasn't talking about writing code! But it's the same thing! In essence, break your code down into manageable logical lumps. And not too lumpy either!

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Go back a few more years, Tony.

Julius Caesar said "Divide and conquer." Of course HE was referring to Gaul, which he had just conquered.

 

[sonic8]

Julius Caesar said "Divide and conquer." Of course HE was referring to Gaul, which he had just conquered.

The quote most likely did not originate with Julius Caesar, even though he was a master of implementing the principle of dividing his military opponents before (and after!) conquering them.

AFAIK it's not really clear who first used the actual saying; Machiavelli was probably one of the first to actually use that phrase.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

True, I don't recall that quote from Caesar's Gallic Wars, but I do remember something similar to "Omni Gallia in tres partes divisa est." So maybe his words didn't come out and say it - but his actions spoke considerably louder than his words.

 

[sonic8]

Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres, ...
Don't get me started on Bellum Gallicum. (I know, its title is rather De Bello Gallico, but the former version of the title was printed on the book, my father gave me to study, when I was like 5 years old. - Back then that book looked so old to me, I wondered if Caesar himself had commissioned its printing.)


With that sentence, which is actually the very beginning of the book, Caesar merely began his description of the ethnic and geographic regions of Gallia. - Of course, his strategy of divide and conquer was heavily based on these ethnic divides.

 

[nfk]

glad to know ya'll can read. playboy magazine anyone?

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Gave up my subscription when cartoonist Gary Larsen reduced his contributions - and oddly enough, that was also the time I got engaged. I sold my back issues to someone who was a collector. I just didn't think my new bride would like having girlie magazines all over the house, and not too long after that, I became a grandpa from one of her kids by her first marriage. It just wouldn't do to have pictures of bare nekkid women all over the house where a toddler could get to them.