overheard in the shower

"Software Engineering is the study of predictably* achieving acceptable** results with mediocre programmers***."

>> "Nate, no-one cares about your programming snark." <<

>> "...But I have footnotes!" <<

Jared made me read Ready Player One. It was a great read, I really enjoyed it, maybe because I got almost half of the references. It think it's really aimed at people just a bit older than me. Classic Gen Xers. Are we still using that term? Anyway: fast paced, teen-oriented plot, compelling setting, a great gimmick, modern sensibilities, and tons and tons of GenX pop culture references. Good times.

I still have that problem where I can't sleep when I'm reading a book if I want to find out what happens. So I finished it 4:30AM... This is why I don't read anymore.



* predictably: for given classes of problems, standard approaches are developed and encouraged. Knowledge of these patterns means that you can almost always find a way to do what you need to do.

** "Including, but by no means limited to, radical redefinitions of the word 'acceptable'." Ha. But honestly this is fairly important. Much of the history of software engineering and high level languages is the history of making acceptable performance trade offs in the name of readability and maintainability. And then arguing about what is "acceptable."

***The thing is, we are all mediocre programmers, in one way or another.