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Re: Handling developers, "the zone" and other myths
Subject:Re: Handling developers, "the zone" and other myths From:Brad Jensen <brad -at- elstore -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 3 Jun 2002 00:43:22 -0500
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bruce Byfield" <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Cc: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Sent: Sunday, June 02, 2002 5:12 PM
Subject: Re: Handling developers, "the zone" and other myths
>
> Brad Jensen wrote:
>
> >I think, based on my experience of the reliability of Windows
OS, that
> >Microsoft shares your philosophy.
> >
> You're forgetting reviewing, bug-checking, and quality
assurance.
Well, maybe Microsoft forgets it, but don't blame that on me.
> Much of the work of programming is not in the initial
inspiration, but in the logical analysis and revision of content.
Sure. That's not programming, that's coding.
(Misappropriated from Truman Capote's comment on Jakc Kerouac's
'On the Road' - That's not writing, that's typing.)
If by logical analisys you mean a part of the desing process, tha
tis most definitely an inspired activity.
In any case, great debugging will not save poor programming.
Or as my father says. "Well, any idiot can write the second
draft!"
(A favorirte comment of advertising copywriters while being
edited - often by him.)
> That's another reason why I regard all the talk about the "zone"
as exaggeration:
I regard talk about anything as exaggeration, but that's a sort of
Zen thing.
> I've done enough professional creative work
glad that's over with?
> to know that the initial impulse and first draft is just the
beginning of any creative process.
> In many ways, talk of the "zone" is comparable to the romantic
> myth of inspiration being the most important - charming in its
way, but
> something that any seasoned professional soon learns to move
beyond.
Inspiration occurs in editing and criticism also.
Every word is a myth in minature.
> Bruce Byfield 604.421.7177 bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com
>
> "They pout, they pose, they curl their lips,
> They miss too many meals
> With their implants and injections
> Only God knows what is real."
> -Garnet Rogers, "Where'd You Get That Little Dress?"
Brad Jensen
"Big whirls have little whirls
that feed off their velocity
and little whirls have lesser whirls
and so on to viscosity
-what's his name
(look up first line on Google - interesting story)
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