Joel Dietz

"Already someone trying to live well would seem eccentrically abstemious in most of the US"

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:06:02 -0400

“Already someone trying to live well would seem eccentrically abstemious in most of the US”

- Pg

"And Esperanto is for noobs ;) If you want to see a real conlang built from the ground up, check out..."

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 23:27:22 -0400

“And Esperanto is for noobs ;) If you want to see a real conlang built from the ground up, check out Ilaksh: http://www.ithkuil.net/ilaksh/Ilaksh_Intro.html”

- w1ntermute

"Matsushima ya / Ah, Matsushima ya / Matsushima ya"

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 23:19:47 -0400

“Matsushima ya / Ah, Matsushima ya / Matsushima ya”

"It is a wonderful and surprising fact that programmers are highly motivated by the desire to create..."

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 00:22:02 -0400

“

It is a wonderful and surprising fact that programmers are highly motivated by the desire to create artifacts that are beautiful, useful, or nifty. This desire is not unique to programmers nor universal but it is so strong and common among programmers that it separates them from others in other roles.

This has practical and important consequences. If programmers are asked to do something that is not beautiful, useful, or nifty, they will have low morale. There’s a lot of money to be made doing ugly, stupid, and boring stuff; but in the end, fun will make the most money for the company.

Obviously, there are entire industries organized around motivational techniques some of which apply here. The things that are specific to programming that I can identify are:

Use the best language for the job.
*

Look for opportunities to apply new techniques, languages, and technologies.
*

Try to either learn or teach something, however small, in each project.

Finally, if possible, measure the impact of your work in terms of something that will be personally motivating. For example, when fixing bugs, counting the number of bugs that I have fixed is not at all motivational to me, because it is independent of the number that may still exist, and is also affects the total value I’m adding to my company’s customers in only the smallest possible way. Relating each bug to a happy customer, however, is personally motivating to me.

”

- How to be a programmer

Not a good sign: From your 201 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 163 items, starred 2...

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:25:36 -0400

Not a good sign:

From your 201 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 163 items, starred 2 items, shared 4 items, and emailed 0 items.

"There are no dreams in the New Immediacy"

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 13:55:03 -0400

“There are no dreams in the New Immediacy”

- OM

"We don’t ask consumers what they want. They don’t know. Instead we apply our brain power to what..."

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 21:18:07 -0400

““We don’t ask consumers what they want. They don’t know. Instead we apply our brain power to what they need, and will want, and make sure we’re there, ready””

- Akio Morita

"Computer programming is an activity that is also a culture. The unfortunate fact is that it is not a..."

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 23:33:57 -0400

“Computer programming is an activity that is also a culture. The unfortunate fact is that it is not a culture that values mental or physical health very much. For both cultural/historical reasons (the need to work at night on unloaded computers, for example) and because of overwhelming time-to-market pressure and the scarcity of programmers, computer programmers are traditionally overworked. I don’t think you can trust all the stories you hear, but I think 60 hours a week is common, and 50 is pretty much a minimum. This means that often much more than that is required. This is serious problem for a good programmer, who is responsible not only for themselves but their teammates as well. You have to recognize when to go home, and sometimes when to suggest that other people go home. There can’t be any fixed rules for solving this problem, anymore than there can be fixed rules for raising a child, for the same reason—-every human being is different.”

- How to be a programmer

Photo

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 21:49:14 -0400

Giotto | Raising of Lazarus

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:03:33 -0400

Giotto | Raising of Lazarus

Thy name is like a prayer an angel whispers…

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:01:39 -0400

Thy name is like a prayer an angel whispers…

Time passes quickly. I do not journal. I only work — and not particularly well. Thought...

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 21:16:50 -0400

Time passes quickly. I do not journal. I only work — and not particularly well. Thought patterns stitched together, overlap, and then become tangled together like so many cords, re-reading countless lines of codes to catch a single bug, also of my introduction. There is no one to blame here, there is on I myself and I, sitting in front of a computer screen for countless hours, occasionally thinking of the outdoors or striking a yogic pose. The financial flow is fine, but nothing else satisfies. I receive some minor recognition. I have new twitter followers, but deeper needs magnify even as deeper wounds become gaping. There is some time for reading in between, but it also is executed poorly. Mere skimming and the future seem likely to hold much more of it. Why graduate school? Why now? I prepare myself for an eternity of labor. Would Sisyphus care if he could not remember the day before?

The gods it seem, care for us enough to clear our memory before we start on a new day. And so I, jittery, embark on a new journey to nothing and nowhere with no hopes except for momentary bounty. Onward! It is my great cry, lifted upward and to whomever will listen. There are not many around.

Despite this, I spend secret hours on the arts. Calligraphy lessons move at a snails pace. I do not improve and, were I to evaluate myself, I would get the lowest of grades. So many strokes diverging. There is, here at least, a right way to do things — and I am not doing it.

I scoff at the paper, at the teacher, at the example on the wall. I will do things my own way. This gets me nowhere.

"What remnant of Númenor still stands upon the shore, and weeps ?"

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:04:09 -0400

“What remnant of Númenor still stands upon the shore, and weeps ?”

- The man without a face

In the end it is dollars and cents / this new renaissance.

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 13:00:24 -0400

In the end it is dollars and cents / this new renaissance.

"Not well? What is sickness to the body of a knight-errant? What matter wounds? For each time he..."

Sat, 26 Jun 2010 18:43:27 -0400

“Not well? What is sickness to the body of a knight-errant?
What matter wounds? For each time he falls he shall rise
again… and woe to the wicked! Sancho!”

- Don Quixote, Man of la Mancha Finale

"Naked I was sent back—for a brief time, until my task is done. And naked I lay upon the..."

Sat, 26 Jun 2010 18:17:21 -0400

“Naked I was sent back—for a brief time, until my task is done. And naked I lay upon the mountain-top.”

- Gandalf the White

"One arrives in faerie only by invitation and, even then, only at one’s peril."

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 00:03:50 -0400

“One arrives in faerie only by invitation and, even then, only at one’s peril.”

- Bradley Birzer, JRR Tolkien’s Sanctifying Myth

Readers here may wish to note that I maintain two other blogs: The Idiots (mostly interviews and...

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 22:37:18 -0400

Readers here may wish to note that I maintain two other blogs:

The Idiots (mostly interviews and essays)

and

d3developer (tech stuff)

Work brings constant stress and exhaustion. Minor to do items pile up and I live in the constant...

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 22:35:44 -0400

Work brings constant stress and exhaustion. Minor to do items pile up and I live in the constant tyranny of the urgent, until some wave breaks over my fragile barrier and I am, for a moment, submerged, then, gasping for air, flailing and struggling to regain my place on the beachhead of life. For dollars and binary, code castles free of damsels in distress, and the only dragon the one inside, laughing at my efforts to beat the ocean’s constant fury, his own appetite cooled in the ocean. I cannot reach to hell and thus remain far from heaven; the mind always races and immediate, libidinous thoughts consume me as I tread water. I know only work, no rest; only combat, no lasting peace.

Return from the Zen Center. There is only one thing left. Resurrection in every moment.

Sun, 20 Jun 2010 22:13:27 -0400

Return from the Zen Center. There is only one thing left. Resurrection in every moment.