I have to admit, I was looking up functions in the docs, too - I would have been a bit faster working in pseudocode on paper.

Edit: Also, my training is in engineering, not comp. sci. - the programming curriculum at my school consists of one MATLAB course.

(Recently added to my growing backlog of possibly-top-level-post-worthy topics is "how and why programming may be a usefull skill for rationalists to pick up"...)

Querying my brain for cached thoughts:

1. Programming encourages clear thinking - like evolution, it is immune to rationalization.

2. Thinking in terms of algorithms, rather than problem-answer pairs, and the former generalize.