Read Holding a Program in One’s Head, an essay by Paul Graham, creator of the precursor to the Yahoo! store and strong supporter of LISP (parent to Scheme/Racket).  Be ready to discuss the reading — notes might help!

As you’re reading, think about the following things:

• Graham draws a parallel between programming and solving math problems.  What do you think about that?
• Graham states that the following things can help you hold a program in your head and therefore be more successful as a programmer:
  1. Avoid distractions.
  2. Work in long stretches.
  3. Use succinct languages.
  4. Keep rewriting your program.
  5. Write rereadable code.
  6. Work in small groups.
  7. Don’t have multiple people editing the same piece of code.
  8. Start small.

  Does this match your experience of what works for you when you write programs? How could you change your habits to more closely match these practices?

• Do you think it’s true that big companies have a hard time encouraging these habits?  Why or why not?
• How does this fit or clash with the commandments of egoless programming?
• How does Scheme help or hinder in sticking to these?  How does that compare to other languages you may have used?

Leave some thoughts in the comments and use the ratings to let us know whether you liked the essay.

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