July 2008
8 posts
Story Lessons, Continued
I’ve written about Story before and gave it its own post. But as I learn about people, I’ve learned some new things.
First of all, most people don’t realize they’re characters in a story — their life story. They don’t step outside the system, as Hofstadter says. Alfred, for example, doesn’t realize he is a character playing a role in the movie The Dark...
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Story — A Life Philosophy
A good story makes a good life.
A good story writes itself.
A good story has story arcs.
A good story cycles between extreme tension and relaxation.
A good story has nothing unnecessary.
A good story intertwines meaning everywhere with everything.
A good story keeps many things a mystery until all is revealed at the end.
A good story changes characters.
A good story spans generations.
A...
Programming Concepts People Just "Don't Get"
It occurred to me that there are many concepts in programming, like say, monads, that are so obviously hugely important to some people, but others seem to just “not get” them. When one of these people that groks monads tries to convince those that don’t how important the concept is, they fail miserably, mostly because others have no experience with monads to relate to. So how...
The Musical Element
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There simply isn’t enough time to write about all the ideas in my mind. I originally wanted to create a working prototype so that I could blow everyone away with this follow-up post, but that would have taken even more time. I’m spread too thin as it is. So I’m not going to spend much time writing about some of my ideas about the primal element of programming. ...
The Primal Element
Over the weekend I went camping. (Fireflies are beautiful, aren’t they?) Being obsessed with programming, it was nice to return to nature for a little while.
At one point, performers captivated the attention of everyone there. It’s easy, really, when you have music with a good beat, fire, and sexy dancers. How can people not be captivated.
That’s what made me think…...