The strain in your brain

Do you feel it? Do you remember the feeling? You’re reading something: something new and complex. And you’re really trying—pushing through that strain in your brain. Do you feel that anymore? It’s a strange thing. As a programmer, it was that feeling that signalled to me that I was learning something new. When the strain dissipated, I came out the other side afresh with new knowledge. Writing code pre-AI gave me that feeling. Reading the docs, or oftentimes the source code of another project led to that tension. Finally figuring out how to wire everything right and make it work was cathartic. It was never really about writing the code anyway—reading and forming that mental model was the hard part. I recall studying the Double Rachet algorithm because I really wanted to understand the Signal Protocol. I must’ve spent two days on that page. Reading, re-reading. Every time pushing past that strain in the brain, only to be met with it again. I grokked it eventually, and I can still mostly…