SPUG:~damian/bin scripts.

Michael R. Wolf MichaelRunningWolf at att.net
Tue Jan 21 18:34:51 CST 2003


Andrew Sweger <andrew at sweger.net> writes:

> On Tue, 21 Jan 2003, O'neil, Jerome wrote:
> 
> > I'd RNDIAA (Rather Not Do It At All) if its ABD (Already Been Done).
> 
> Sometimes it becomes a matter of scale. Small tricks and tools like those
> presented by Damian last week are so small and particular to the
> individual, it's usually more important that the user have an intimate
> understanding of those tricks and shortcuts.

Agreed.  Seeing Damain's SW environment reminded me of my father's HW
environment.  He's a mechanical engineer by trade.  He's got his shop
set up a certain way.  And he's got his computer set up a certain
way.  It took him years until he even *got* a computer.  Before that,
he had his drafting board set up a certain way.

I liked that Damian closed his talk with a physical world analogy.
When my dad sits at his computer, the graphic table, its pen, the
screen and the chair are all set for *him*.  I can get a bit of work
done at his computer, but it's his setup.  It's not so streamlined for
me.  Of course, I eventually get all the same things set up around
*my* computer, but I like my pens in a different place, and my
keyboard at a different angle, and the presets on my internet radio
are all different.  It's a personal thing.

I do see the other side of this discussion, but let's not loose the
balance that both sides bring, else we'll be trimming the ham before
cooking it because our parents did, without realizing that they had a
smaller pan than we do.

[...]

> One never knows with Damian. Getting Damian's ~/bin is less important to
> me than just letting Damian work on whatever he feels is important. He's
> been a much better judge of priorities for Perl than I'll ever be.

To use another physical world analogy, I was talking with a master
Perl programmer recently who has started doing some blacksmith work.
(I had to laugh -- m/(source|metal)forge/....)  He talked about some
of the tricks that the blacksmith used.  They were not anything magic,
but the Perl guy didn't know them.  He learned them.  And was learning
more.  But it took working in the metal and under a master to pick
some up.  He learned by putting his body (and brain) through the
process of producing a product.  To get zen about it -- when the
student was ready, the teacher appeared.

I think there's a lot to learn by working with someone, or at least
within their physical vicinity.  Maybe that's a part of what works
about cubicles and pair-wise programming.  (I certainly do understand
what doesn't work about cubicles.  No need to start another thread.)

In some respects, telecommuting is a detrement to our professions'
state of the art and state of the practice.  Generations of workers in
other professions learned skills in an apprentice program, formal or
not.  The best practices just naturally flowed from one generation to
the next, effortlessly, implicitly.  We have to explicitly train
ourselves with much effort.  And we miss a lot.  We only get the high
points, the points that are conscious.  Damian is good at bringing the
unconscious to the foreground, to make them high points.  But so much
about artistry and mastry is unconscious, and therefore misses the
opportunity to be shared among us all, in an ever-flowing exchange.

IMHO,
Michael Wolf

P.S.  Do you hear the seeds of another PUUP (Perl Users Using Perl)
session?  It's on my stack.

-- 
Michael R. Wolf
    All mammals learn by playing!
        MichaelRunningWolf at att.net




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