...more recent posts
And I thought yesterday went well. This morning I fought my way around what I thought was the biggest problem I was facing with the new site. Damn, the stars must be lined up for me or something. Anybody know about astrology? Is this a good time for a Taurus? Anyway, I've been searching the net for an answer to this one problem, and all I've found are other people with the same problem. But this morning I finally got it to work. At my level - beginner/advanced-beginner - you never really "solve" any major problems, you just find ways around them. I guess that's what they call "hacking". It's a "hack" (instead of a "fix" or a "solution") because it doesn't really solve the problem, it just routes around it, and often inelegantly. But if it works I guess it's O.K. I think a lot of craftsmen/engineers have this sort of attitude. It's an outlook I aspire to. People can theorize all they want, but who has the running code? Somebody else may have a more sophisticated approach, and they may be able to tell you why, but if their solution doesn't work yet, then what good is it? In this spirit I'll point to the Tanenbaum-Torvalds Debate. This is the mailing list debate between young Linus Torvalds (upstart linux creator) with the (then) most respected mind in the academic field of operating system research. A little technical, but skip those parts, and just read the juicy conflict parts. There is a real lesson in there. The "best" product is not necessarily the best product. The best product is the one that ends up working for the most people, not the one that is the most intellectually pure. Good good stuff. I love that linus signs his stuff 'Linus "Benedict" Torvalds'.
I can't believe how much work I'm getting done. There's something you won't here me say too often.
I can't believe how much work I'm getting done. There's something you won't here me say too often.