Thanks

Edward G Nilges — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 17:36:56 -0800

I enjoyed your insightful comments, Donna.

Fulfillment in Code

Daniel Read — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 15:52:00 -0800

This is an excellent and insightful meditation, Donna. It hits on many themes that have been on my mind lately. This in particular jumped out me:

The ideal, I suppose, is to search for fulfillment in the work your hands have found to do...and find it in each line of code.

This is an approach that I've taken in my career, and indeed, in life in general. Idealism in the large is really hard. I view Edward's writings in many ways as a grappling with the thorny issues around "idealism in the large." In life, I am aware that it's extremely difficult to live in this world without least indirectly supporting some things you'd rather not support.

If you follow the logic outward from any action (such as purchasing shoes, deciding what to eat, donating money to a charity or political cause) you will very soon encounter some person or entity engaged in an activity of which you would not approve. The shoe manufacturer might be exploiting people to make its shoes, or the food company might be supporting farmers who are pouring toxic chemicals in the ground or cutting the beaks off of chickens. Where does one draw the lines? If one cares about such things, one has to draw some lines one can live with, while accepting that an ideal cannot be achieved.

Otherwise the choice is to disengage, lest one contribute, directly or indirectly to something real ill (to borrow a phrase that I love from hip-hop). But is disengagement a worthy end? Does we stand frozen on a stone in the middle of a field lest we step on and kill bugs and worms as we walk across the field?

Moving back to the world of software development, how does one live with the inevitable compromises, whether they be political/social/environmental compromises or technical ones (like using a certain XML parser for a project even though you consider it to be flawed)? Each person has to answer that for his or herself.

I draw my lines where I can, and do my best to live with the rest. Sometimes I feel like a sellout, but most of the time I sleep okay with the knowledge of what "my" software is out there in the world supporting. I like this statement from your essay: "search for fulfillment in the work your hands have found to do." This is my refuge.

There's a scene I like in the film version of W. Somerset Maugham's The Razor's Edge. This scene is not in the book, but there's a great scene during the time of the story when the character played by Bill Murray is in India seeking enlightenment. He asks a man who is kneeling on a river bank washing dishes about how he practices his religion. The man says something to the effect of, "I am practicing my religion right now." That's always stuck with me, and I was disappointed when I read the book years later that this scene is not there.

Washing one's dishes, or writing one's code, with dilligence and attention is about all we can control is this crazy world. This is why my book Principled Programming (should it ever see the light of day) focuses solely on what is under the control of the programmer when he or she is in front of the terminal writing code, and what is in the mind of the programmer during that time.

Thanks again, Donna.

Dan

Tuesdays with a Developer: Old Programmers, Young Programmers, and the Profession's Greatest Lesson

Donna L Davis — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 08:40:10 -0800

Once you learn how to code, do you learn how to live?

developer.* Blogs - Tuesdays with a Developer: Old Programmers, Young Programmers, and the Profession's Greatest Lesson - Comments

Thanks

Fulfillment in Code

Tuesdays with a Developer: Old Programmers, Young Programmers, and the Profession's Greatest Lesson