BitKeeper Cont.

All hell broke lose! I accidently misinterpreted what Larry McVoy said about a mailing list to discuss the BK license and started one especially for the cause on Yahoo Groups. I then was told it was a bad idea (by someone else) and so closed it and sent Larry my sincere apologies.

But who is John Galt? I mean: I like Larry, but I don't like his attitude.

The Ultimate Choice

The ultimate choice between good and bad lies in the mind of every man. This ultimate choice is not between being productive or being unproductive (Ethics can be summed up in "First, do not harm"). It is between not harming anyone and destroying people's life and happiness.

Linus Torvalds chose good. He himself says that people should do less for ideals and more for the fun of it: do and let do. Ideals are important. But inhabiting the occupied territories is not an ideal. Honesty is. Constant Mental Effort is. Integrated Thinking is. Sincerity is. Passion is.

Joel Spolsky chose good. He may not distribute his software as open-source, but I would not do it either if I were him. You don't want FogBUGZ ? Use bugzilla instead. Don't like CityDesk? Use WebMetaLanguage (I do) or start hacking on your own. I am beginning to really like Shrinkwrap software (which includes open-source.) It makes you feel like you think about your users every day, and produces code of high quality.

I did Internal software here and there. (even the autoconf scripts of open-source packages are considered internal software) Internal is something more like let's run it until it breaks. Embedded seems fun and challenging.

Eric S. Raymond naturally is one of the most prominent value producers of our time. His CatB series is nothing short of seminal, and a must read for everybody whether you are a programmer or not.

Believe it or not but I think RMS is also a supreme value producer that is growing in happiness. He has a tendency to be stubburn and make everybody miserable, but otherwise he is doing great. At the moment, he deals with legal hacks, which are much more important than adding a new feature to gcc. Everybody depends on the GPL keeping its edge. So, if he has to make sure this is the case - so be it.

Life as a big riddle

I m,any times, like to think of life here on earth as one big riddle that I have to solve, after which the curtain falls, everybody congratulates me and I get to live happily ever after. I told it to one of the admins on Com-Net one night when I was in a philosophical mood.

I think people who does not see life like this are actually doing themselves damage. I mean, this is what ESR is all about (a social hacker), and Linus and everybody. Common, gentle people who are holding a lot of power in their fingertips, all because they like to play with the elements of "existence".

But who is John Galt? (tartei-mashmah)

Some Messages

1. Dear people: will you please stop blaming others for your own problems? I am not the worst among you - I am the best. If my productivity and enthusiasm puts you in a bad light - that's not my problem.

2. Someone criticized me for being tact-less. Then he sent me a series of E-mails that were irrational, emotional, harsh and scared me to death. Calling them tact-less would have been an understatement.

I don't remember me that tactless. People, you need to practice what you preach.

3. I think the standard third-voice/diminishing of self trend is Evil. I like to tell about myself and what I do, because I know that people will relate to a real-life developer who has real-life needs. It has nothing to do with Ego-mania, so please give me a break.

Note that believing in Ego-diminishing fads can, IMO, have disastrous side-effects on your psychology. I remember the time that I tried very much to be humble. Didn't work at all. Now I'm proud and occasionally tell people about things I do and what I did. I hope I'm not too arrogant, but that's life.

<<<
Psychologists think they're experimental psychologists.
Experimental psychologists think they're biologists.
Biologists think they're biochemists.
Biochemists think they're chemists.
Chemists think they're physical chemists.
Physical chemists think they're physicists.
Physicists think they're theoretical physicists.
Theoretical physicists think they're mathematicians.
Mathematicians think they're metamathematicians.
Metamathematicians think they're philosophers.
Philosophers think they're gods.
>>>

And also "All language designers are arrogant. Goes with the territory" by Larry Wall. I am both a language designer and a philosopher, so I might still be in a pretty good shape. ;-)