CODE IN TOKYO

Volume Wins. But Only After You Learn the Form

Recently, I have been thinking about this again.

People have debated “quality vs. quantity” for a long time. But in the end, everyone who gets good at something has done a huge amount of it.

Programming, English, strength training. It is the same pattern.

When you look at someone who is good, their number of attempts is usually abnormal.

So basically, I am on the side of “volume wins.”

But there is one condition.

At the beginning, you need form.

It Is Faster to Start With a Map

Trying hard when you know nothing is inefficient.

In baseball, it is batting or pitching form.

In cooking, it is how to use a knife.

In English, it is grammar.

In programming, it is the idea of variables and functions.

Just knowing the minimum form cuts down a lot of unnecessary detours.

You can walk through a forest without a map, but most of the time you will get lost.

That is why quality matters at the beginning.

But You Do Not Move Forward by Only Looking at Maps

The problem is that some people turn collecting maps into the goal.

They buy several grammar books.

They keep researching study methods.

They stack up programming books.

Before they notice it, years have passed while they were still preparing to enter the forest.

People who are good at English have spent a lot of time touching English.

People who are good at programming have written a lot of code.

In the end, you do not improve unless you jump into practice at some point.

Engineers Are a Little Different

Engineering, however, is slightly different.

Because the correct answer itself changes.

When I was younger, physical servers were normal.

Then virtualization came, then cloud, then containers, and now AI agents are writing code.

If you only trust old knowledge and keep adding volume, you may eventually find yourself outdated.

So engineers need a cycle:

This work is not about making a map once and being done with it. It is about continuing to rewrite the map itself.

In the End, the Person Who Runs Wins

That was true for me in both English and programming.

Looking back, the periods when I grew were always the periods when I was moving my hands.

On the other hand, when I was stuck, I was usually spending too much time choosing study methods or tools.

It is faster to start running, even imperfectly, than to stand still looking for the perfect method.

Learn the form first.

Then run.

And occasionally rewrite the map.

Recently, I feel that this balance is probably about right.

Closing

Of course, nothing changes just because you read this article.

I will not change either.

In fact, instead of spending time writing this essay,

I would probably be better off writing ten lines of code.

Because volume wins.