In 1843 she was asked to translate a French paper about Babbage's calculating engine. She added her own notes — about three times longer than the paper — and one of them set out, step by step, what is widely called the first computer program. Here is her imagined day.
Ada Lovelace
Mathematician & first programmer · Method Duck · finishes the notes
Today's Focus 3/3
🐸 Finish Note G — the steps the machine would follow
The note nobody commissioned is the one that matters.
Translate the paper, then check every line by hand
The notes · translation is the easy half
Write to Babbage with the questions that do not fit
Letters · ask precisely
🧠 Brain Dump 4
The machine does not think — it follows. Say that plainly.
Could it work on music, not only numbers?
Check the number sequence again by hand
Label each step so a stranger could run it
Pomodoro
🐸 Note G
25:00
Projects 3 active
The notesfrog lives here
Letters
Study
💡 Ideas Wall
What if a machine could handle anything you can write rules for?
What you can learn from Ada Lovelace
The extra work is the work.
The translation was the job. The notes she added on top ran three times longer and are why we still read it. Deliver the brief — then add the part only you would think of.
Write the steps out in full.
Her Note G set out line by line how the engine would calculate a sequence of numbers. Vague plans are wishes; numbered steps are work you can actually start.
Say what the tool cannot do.
She was clear the engine could not originate anything — it could only do what it was told. Knowing a tool's limits is how you use it well, and that is still true of every tool on your desk.
Follow the idea past the brief.
She saw that a number machine could work on music or patterns if you could write the rules. Keep an Ideas Wall — the thought that does not fit today is often the valuable one.
Sources: her 1843 translation of Menabrea's paper on the Analytical Engine, published with her Notes A to G. Details are simplified for illustration.
An imagined workspace. This page is an editorial illustration of
Ada Lovelace's well-documented habits, shown inside DuckDoro. It is not affiliated with, or
endorsed by, Ada Lovelace, her estate, or any related company — and the only face on this
page belongs to a duck.