Amy's like my birthday present every day!
Programming and Writing
I'll talk about the first keynote at the Rails Conference, but I won't get too technical on you. It was by David Heinemeier Hannson (affectionately known as DHH), the creator of Rails.
The F-word density was greater than any keynote I've ever heard. But that was only part of its greatness!
Just a little bit of background, though. Rails is this programming tool you use to create web programs - sites that actually do interesting stuff, like Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.. What's beautiful about is it's very productive - you can build sites very rapidly in very little code. And the resulting code is understandable by other programmers, who inevitably have to fix and improve your stuff.
So DHH is not a computer scientist, not an engineer, and kind of despises that whole theoretical side of the fence. He says that programmers are more Software Writers than Software Engineers. Their job is to be concise and clear in their writing, just like English writers are supposed to be. They should not be burdened by metrics, which are of very little practical use. You don't tell whether an article is good by the number of words in it. Or even the grade level of the words. And finally both software and regular writing have guidelines that, when artfully broken, can lead to startling beauty and insight.
As a CompSci and English dude, this makes perfect sense to me. And it's not a new idea. Donald Knuth, who's one of the Founders of CompSci, dubbed it "literate programming". The programmer writes for two audiences: the computer and (more importantly) the programmers who follow. And you learn that art by both writing lots of code and reading lots of code ... not by following platitudes. Which is why there is no more "formulaic programming" than there is "formulaic writing." If there were, Time Warner would be making computers compose novels.
Once that idea came up, I began to see it pop up all over.
One other theme I'm noticing is people are interested in Programming for the Greater Good. There was one talk by a George Mason University researcher who used his programming skills to further bee research (a very hot topic these days).
Although I didn't know it , this was the kind of inspiration I desperately needed. Volunteerism was something I had left behind a long time ago - mostly when Kathy got sick and there wasn't any free time to do anything. I didn't know how much I missed it. A long time ago, I did computer work for the Lincoln Food Bank. It took only 4 hours a week to help streamline their operation. Since then, with the internet and Open Source software, it's even easier to apply programming skills to people who need it. Now I'm getting psyched...
So DHH is not a computer scientist, not an engineer, and kind of despises that whole theoretical side of the fence. He says that programmers are more Software Writers than Software Engineers. Their job is to be concise and clear in their writing, just like English writers are supposed to be. They should not be burdened by metrics, which are of very little practical use. You don't tell whether an article is good by the number of words in it. Or even the grade level of the words. And finally both software and regular writing have guidelines that, when artfully broken, can lead to startling beauty and insight.
As a CompSci and English dude, this makes perfect sense to me. And it's not a new idea. Donald Knuth, who's one of the Founders of CompSci, dubbed it "literate programming". The programmer writes for two audiences: the computer and (more importantly) the programmers who follow. And you learn that art by both writing lots of code and reading lots of code ... not by following platitudes. Which is why there is no more "formulaic programming" than there is "formulaic writing." If there were, Time Warner would be making computers compose novels.
Once that idea came up, I began to see it pop up all over.
One other theme I'm noticing is people are interested in Programming for the Greater Good. There was one talk by a George Mason University researcher who used his programming skills to further bee research (a very hot topic these days).
Although I didn't know it , this was the kind of inspiration I desperately needed. Volunteerism was something I had left behind a long time ago - mostly when Kathy got sick and there wasn't any free time to do anything. I didn't know how much I missed it. A long time ago, I did computer work for the Lincoln Food Bank. It took only 4 hours a week to help streamline their operation. Since then, with the internet and Open Source software, it's even easier to apply programming skills to people who need it. Now I'm getting psyched...
Two
That night, I capped it off with the most intense meal of my life. Maybe not the best - it's hard to top Les Olividades in Paris. But the most intense.
It was at a restaurant called Two. Yes, I "made a reservation for one at Two" - a confusing email followed. It took me about an hour to walk there since Google Maps can sometimes be a horrible mistress (Jon - don't take that personally. Or do. Maybe it was your fault!) But there it was, right across from the Tesla dealership - very symbolic, I think. The elite new guard. The lighting was low and there were two huge communal tables. One side was to the wall with pillows in back.
These are people obsessive about the FLAVOR of the ingredients. Not complexity so much as intensity. Lettuce should taste like lettuce. And if you're like me, you're thinking "lettuce has a taste?" It turns out it does ... if it's grown on a farm that's close by, grown by obsessives (Two actually owns a share of the farm), and therefore incredibly fresh.
I started dinner with a Three Sheeps Pale Ale from Wisconsin, with bubbles like whipped cream and a very unbitter hoppy taste. Almost flowery. And then there was the best salad EVER. It was topped with homemade bacon, which the waiter encourage I taste by itself before digging in. The cucumbers were so thin you could see through them, but they BURST with cucumberness. Little strips of apples criss-crossed the top. And on the side were four marble-sized, deep fried bits of homemade ricotta. (Ricotta has flavor? Again, yes!) I bit into one, and the cheese oozed out, not too hot, not too cold. The salad was not perfect in the traditonal sense - there was a little bit of brown on some of the leaves - but pure genius always makes you questions whether mistakes are really mistakes. It was a ten dollar salad and worth ever penny.
For dinner, I had Ramp Risotto and Roasted Broccoli with Cauliflower. I asked about ramps, which are a part spinach/part onion vegetable. They boil them all day into a puree. It's everything you like about onion flavor without the hotness or bad breath afterwards. It's hard to believe they were once considered weeds. I shoved my face into the steam coming off the risotto and lingered there for a few minutes.
But for me, the most amazing dish was the Broccoli and Cauliflower. They were smothered with a fondue cheese sauce that had a little kick to it. But the actual flavor of the actual Broccoli and Cauliflower was so intense, it was like eating five of the the same food at the same time. The texture of both was just a bit crunchy, but the warmth went all the way to center of the vegetable, which is different than a regular stir fry. (Stir fry is crunchy, but the outside is hot and the inside cold). It was astounding! I think there was a little citrus in the middle. But whatever it was, I could still taste it hours after seating.
Words fail me. These are humble vegetables. I don't know how to describe them, except they were just MORE SO.
Dessert was donut a la mode. Well, that's a literal reading, anyway. The donut tasted more like the wheat inside it than sugar, and the ice cream (also homemade) balanced the sweetness of maple syrup across the top. And they gave me an after-dinner aperatif (bubbly red wine with a rose aroma) for my birthday.
Sometimes I believe that restriction, not freedom, is the true source of creativity. Before you color outside the lines, you have to have lines. So. If you let nature draw your boundaries for you, you can be creative in ways that unbounded processing and shipping cannot.
Mind, consider yourself blown. A nice thing for your 49th birthday, eh?
But for me, the most amazing dish was the Broccoli and Cauliflower. They were smothered with a fondue cheese sauce that had a little kick to it. But the actual flavor of the actual Broccoli and Cauliflower was so intense, it was like eating five of the the same food at the same time. The texture of both was just a bit crunchy, but the warmth went all the way to center of the vegetable, which is different than a regular stir fry. (Stir fry is crunchy, but the outside is hot and the inside cold). It was astounding! I think there was a little citrus in the middle. But whatever it was, I could still taste it hours after seating.
Words fail me. These are humble vegetables. I don't know how to describe them, except they were just MORE SO.
Dessert was donut a la mode. Well, that's a literal reading, anyway. The donut tasted more like the wheat inside it than sugar, and the ice cream (also homemade) balanced the sweetness of maple syrup across the top. And they gave me an after-dinner aperatif (bubbly red wine with a rose aroma) for my birthday.
Sometimes I believe that restriction, not freedom, is the true source of creativity. Before you color outside the lines, you have to have lines. So. If you let nature draw your boundaries for you, you can be creative in ways that unbounded processing and shipping cannot.
Mind, consider yourself blown. A nice thing for your 49th birthday, eh?
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