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startupdiscuss | 3 years ago

Zen Koan:

Before I began my studies in Zen, I thought a tree was a tree and a stone, a stone.

When I started to study Zen, I could see that a tree was not a tree, and a stone was not a stone.

Now that I am a Zen master, I know that a tree is a tree and a stone is a stone.

-- Source: my buddy in college

I think you come full circle to learn that you can only keep so much in your head at one time and that you're always in some sense loading up what you need for the next month or three. At least this time you knew to look for the man su command, and remind yourself of the work you did, that you shared with all these other people.

discuss

order

hinkley|3 years ago

    Before enlightenment: chop wood, carry water
    After enlightenment: chop wood, carry water

fezfight|3 years ago

Where does existential dread fit in there?

alpaca128|3 years ago

Reminds me of how after learning how CPUs, memory, operating systems etc work I thought "wow, it really is all ones and zeroes". A simple phrase but it became more meaningful with deeper understanding.

eurasiantiger|3 years ago

Sorry, but ”computers work by ones and zeroes” is one of my pet peeves.

It is true in the sense that 1 and 0 are common representations for true and false in computer science, but really, it is false and almost certainly establishes magical thinking in the layperson.

Modern computers run on electricity, and in electrical circuits such as computers, true/false is represented as a transistor semiconductor being in a conducting or non-conducting state. Current can either flow, or it can’t.

In fact, one could build a computer out almost anything that lends itself to both being on and off, and to being controlled by its on/off state (or that of another equivalent assembly).

yuy910616|3 years ago

It is pretty cool. When I was little I had no idea what it means, just knew that it sounds cool. But the older I get that more I see these patterns.

junior dev: python is so cool!

senior dev: python is slow. No type checking. The syntax is garbage.

John Carmack: I write a lot of python and I use it exactly for what it is good for!

intelVISA|3 years ago

if only the Carmack level was attainable for us mortals; I've moments where I trick myself into writing passable code but after a little research the same memory order semantics from my IDE stare back at me from Carmack's Doom 3 code 20 years ago. RIP

sneak|3 years ago

Related: The Egg http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html

BbzzbB|3 years ago

Kurzgesagt's short video is great too, it's (quasi-)verbatim, but the music, animation and narration makes it quite poignant.

The idea behind the story is quite fascinating to me. If simulationists are right, it's as good or better of a "why" as "origin seeking" IMO. Not that I believe one way or the other, I just think the idea's interesting to ponder on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6fcK_fRYaI

geek_at|3 years ago

Interesting read, thanks for sharing