fool @fool@mastodon.technology

I hereby declare myself this instance's foremost Star Wars Prequel Defender.

Being a programmer is turning me into an anarchist: I always seem to want to eliminate state.

My job is easy because the decent thing to do and the practical thing to do are so often aligned. My job is hard because so few people believe it.

Technical debt involves more than just code. Development practices can be damaged just like a codebase can. This, too, incurs friction, accumulates costs with interest, and can eventually lead to default.

Societies which disapprove of public displays of affection between men do harm to themselves beyond the obvious. A considerable amount of physic tension is caused by the attempt to reconcile the paradox of an activity that is both forbidden and a man date.

what's a computer

This is what I'd like to say to a certain client of mine, a CEO of a startup. I'd even settle for saying that their entirely justifiable anxiety is about to be self-fulfilling because of the effect it'll have on morale.

They made the decision to trust us, and it's all gone according to plan - the only thing that's changed since then is that they've spent more time imagining failure.

Well, you can't get too attached. Most startups fail anyway.

Listen to your fear. Cherish your fear. Fear is important. Fear is the emotion that protects you.

But don't let your fear make decisions for you. The purpose of your existence is not to be protected. Anything worth doing entails risk, vulnerability, the possibility of pain.

Courage is one thing, but I'm not talking about courage. It is enough to learn to notice and acknowledge when you're about to panic.

closing my ransomware messages with "Sent from your iPhone"

I think I can frame that last pun less confusingly

King Farthur

I do a lot of pair programming. It's great. But one thing nobody warned me about is that when I'm pairing with a relative beginner, I gotta be strictly disciplined all the time.

Two experts can bend the "rules" and get more done, keeping each other honest. Beginners by definition haven't developed the judgment to safely loosen up; they'll make mistakes that they won't be able to detect.

So I have to set an example that's more fastidious than what's most comfortable for me. That's why I shitpost off-hours.

For years I have called pokemon "'ems," as in "What's your favorite new 'em?" or "Let's trade 'ems this afternoon." The reason for this is because of the slogan, "Gotta catch 'em all." This habit has served me well and I suggest that you give it a try.