I promise, I will not exploit the "goats .." forever. But my how I failed to solve it in time let me think a little more about some simple working principles.
Clear, we have objectives, procedures, methods and tools and we have knowledge and skills, a world view and an environment.
But there are a few simple things that we tend to suppress.
Set a date (time)
It is serious to announce a date. There is no project without dates. It can be far in the future. But never miss a date. It might be the most important date for somebody else.
Don't parallelize
Your brain is not a multi-thread computer. Cognitive loads slow you down. Software developers must choose adding positive distraction over cognitive loads.
Don't use a speedometer
You can approach your destination right over the mountains driving slow or bypass it on the highway. A speedometer is not always an indication how far your goal still is. So, number of code lines / week do not say much. It's the richness and freedom of the language, the programming style, the computational knowledge base, algorithmic engines, … see the slow developer movement
When good ENUF is great
Deliver - even if it's not a master piece. Especially in quant finance, complex systems can be worse if they lose additional information in the methodological jungle. And basic technologies are emerging fast. They can help you to make she most important dead lines.
Quants - think it, build it, in time, good enough and fast enough.
Picture from sehfelder
