Five Questions
Dec. 1st, 2009 08:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jducoeurPlaying along with the latest meme (I'm always a sucker for this sort), here are five questions for me from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
marysdress:
1) If you couldn't write code for a living, what would you do?
I've actually thought about this occasionally, since some of my friends have fallen out of the industry from time to time. It's horribly easy to do, because the programming business is ruthless: either you keep your skills sharp and current at all times, or you'll find yourself a has-been in ten years. I don't expect it to happen to me, but only because I work quite hard to stay on the cutting edge.
(More plausibly, I *could* be put out of work by outsourcing. But so far, the outsourcing companies are selling quantity, not quality, and haven't put me in much obvious danger.)
Anyway, options I've considered include:
2) Name one organization you haven't joined and want to.
This one's easy: York Rite.
The thing is, while Freemasonry looks like this big monolithic thing from the outside, it's actually broken down into lots of constituent organizations -- closely related, but not identical. In particular, there are four bits that are more or less universal in the US:
The problem is that I *care* altogether too much about this stuff. I don't have any additional free time to attend every month, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth to contemplate joining and not becoming an active participant. I know that most of the guys in York Rite poo-pooh this -- they'd be more than happy to have a candidate who is genuinely interested, even if I can't attend regularly -- but it's held me back. One of these days, though, I'll probably join: I'm simply way too curious to experience the ritual.
3) If you could go back, would you major in anything different in college than you did?
No, really not. Keep in mind, I started as a theater major -- that's part of why I went to Brandeis. But I quickly realized that (a) doing theater at the professional level would be very hard work, and (b) odds are pretty good that I would never make a lot of money. By contrast, I could pretty well breeze my way through programming, and would be likely to make a comfortable living at it.
Basically, I quickly realized that, while I *enjoy* acting, it isn't my calling -- and it's not a job for the dilettante. And the truth is, it's become ever-clearer over the years that programming *is* my calling -- not just my job, but my *art*, and I love to express myself in code. That's why, despite the above list of other careers I could conceivably pursue, I've never seriously contemplated shifting tracks: I simply love coding too much.
4) You can change one thing about the SCA - what is it?
Oooh -- that's a hard one. Such a target-rich environment.
Okay, let's be counter-factual, since we're indulging in fantasy: I would prevent the Corporation from having been founded until five years later. For my money, most of the SCA's problems stem from the excessive identification of the Society and the Corporation -- the idea that you *can't* have the game without the business. That leads to a host of problems, ranging from the overly centralized bureaucracy to the budget woes. I think the Corporation is useful, mind -- but it would have been nice if it had grown up late enough in the club's evolution to be more properly perceived as the Society's servant rather than its master.
5) Invite five people from history over to dinner. Who are they?
You ask this of the specialist non-historian, of course. Okay, assuming away the language difficulties, and slightly at random:
ETA: I'm not promising questions -- I simply don't have time to do a lot of them, and I find question-asking fairly hard. But if you want some, say so and I'll try...
marysdress:1) If you couldn't write code for a living, what would you do?
I've actually thought about this occasionally, since some of my friends have fallen out of the industry from time to time. It's horribly easy to do, because the programming business is ruthless: either you keep your skills sharp and current at all times, or you'll find yourself a has-been in ten years. I don't expect it to happen to me, but only because I work quite hard to stay on the cutting edge.
(More plausibly, I *could* be put out of work by outsourcing. But so far, the outsourcing companies are selling quantity, not quality, and haven't put me in much obvious danger.)
Anyway, options I've considered include:
- Writing. Yes, this is what everyone says, and I know that it's *vastly* harder than it looks. But I'm not a terrible writer, and I suspect that I could become a good one if I actually put some major time and effort into it. (I have this Shakespearean play sitting on the back burner that I *am* going to actually write one of these days.)
- Games. A tough business to crack, but as in the above I probably have many of the relevant skills. Not clear whether I could make an adequate living at it, though.
- Politics. Not as a candidate -- while I might entertain fantasies about that, I know how long the odds are against a short Jewish iconoclast. But I could see myself involved in the backroom side of things. Might give me a heart attack, but I'd likely find it absorbing as hell.
- Consulting. Let's get real: my father hasn't programmed for a living in decades, and he makes more than twice what I do per hour. If I was being strictly rational about it, I *should* follow in his footsteps in this respect.
- Business. I know that I have problems as a business leader, but that's partly because I dither too much. If I was stuck in a position of "make money or starve", I actually suspect I wouldn't be bad at it.
2) Name one organization you haven't joined and want to.
This one's easy: York Rite.
The thing is, while Freemasonry looks like this big monolithic thing from the outside, it's actually broken down into lots of constituent organizations -- closely related, but not identical. In particular, there are four bits that are more or less universal in the US:
- Blue Lodge Masonry -- the basic three degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason. Any "regular" Mason belongs to Blue Lodge.
- Scottish Rite -- an additional 29 degrees. Nowadays, these are done in a less immersive fashion than Blue Lodge: more about *watching* a ritual than being a direct part of it. And you don't actually have to go through all 29 in order. Very popular.
- York Rite -- similar concept to Scottish Rite, but not quite as many degrees and sticking with the more-immersive style of Blue Lodge. This is itself broken down into three subparts: Council, Chapter and Commandery.
- Shrine -- yes, the guys with the fezzes and little cars. Any York or Scottish Rite Mason can join the Shrine.
The problem is that I *care* altogether too much about this stuff. I don't have any additional free time to attend every month, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth to contemplate joining and not becoming an active participant. I know that most of the guys in York Rite poo-pooh this -- they'd be more than happy to have a candidate who is genuinely interested, even if I can't attend regularly -- but it's held me back. One of these days, though, I'll probably join: I'm simply way too curious to experience the ritual.
3) If you could go back, would you major in anything different in college than you did?
No, really not. Keep in mind, I started as a theater major -- that's part of why I went to Brandeis. But I quickly realized that (a) doing theater at the professional level would be very hard work, and (b) odds are pretty good that I would never make a lot of money. By contrast, I could pretty well breeze my way through programming, and would be likely to make a comfortable living at it.
Basically, I quickly realized that, while I *enjoy* acting, it isn't my calling -- and it's not a job for the dilettante. And the truth is, it's become ever-clearer over the years that programming *is* my calling -- not just my job, but my *art*, and I love to express myself in code. That's why, despite the above list of other careers I could conceivably pursue, I've never seriously contemplated shifting tracks: I simply love coding too much.
4) You can change one thing about the SCA - what is it?
Oooh -- that's a hard one. Such a target-rich environment.
Okay, let's be counter-factual, since we're indulging in fantasy: I would prevent the Corporation from having been founded until five years later. For my money, most of the SCA's problems stem from the excessive identification of the Society and the Corporation -- the idea that you *can't* have the game without the business. That leads to a host of problems, ranging from the overly centralized bureaucracy to the budget woes. I think the Corporation is useful, mind -- but it would have been nice if it had grown up late enough in the club's evolution to be more properly perceived as the Society's servant rather than its master.
5) Invite five people from history over to dinner. Who are they?
You ask this of the specialist non-historian, of course. Okay, assuming away the language difficulties, and slightly at random:
- Francis Willoughby -- from his work, clearly a geek who was passionate about games
- The guy who wrote the Gresley MS -- so I could ask him what the heck he was talking about
- Alfonso X -- simply from the great works he commissioned, clearly a scholar of diverse interests
- Leif Eriksson -- for the stories of his travels
- Benjamin Franklin -- because I suspect he'd be fascinated by how history unfolded, and it would make a neat theory vs. practice discussion
ETA: I'm not promising questions -- I simply don't have time to do a lot of them, and I find question-asking fairly hard. But if you want some, say so and I'll try...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-02 01:59 am (UTC)That would be an interesting dinner party!
Are you handing out questions?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-02 03:24 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-02 03:55 am (UTC)2. What is your favorite activity within the Society?
3. What do you enjoy most about programming?
4. What is the one food in the world you can't do without?
5. What originally attracted you to the SCA? Is it still true?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-02 03:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-02 04:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-02 03:55 am (UTC)1. Which appeals to you more, the emotional or intellectual aspects of Judaism?
2. Which of your engineering-related positions have you most enjoyed? Why?
3. Having had some years in it, was the Pennsic house worth the effort?
4. What single characteristic matters most to you in a political candidate?
5. What TV show do you most wish had not ended the way it did?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-02 04:05 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-02 05:05 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-02 02:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-02 01:44 pm (UTC)I know how long the odds are against a short Jewish iconoclast.
I'm sure I get your meaning here: you're speaking of ethnicity, not religion, and addressing your expectation of the perceptions of strangers in a political context, yes? Still, I found it surprising, since you've described your upbringing as completely secular.
York Rite
Yeah, man. You gotta do this, and I've been telling you that for decades %^). I sponsored you and helped Raise you: I know the manner of Mason you are, and -- trust me -- any chapter would be delighted to count you among them. I could anticipate your motivation to be fully involved, and your distaste at being an occasional sideline attendee, but really, that's you, and no one else. No one but yourself would hold that against you.
You're clued enough to know full well that Masonry is more about the journey than the destination. But still, there are questions left unanswered in Blue Lodge, goals left unattained. I know -- I know -- that you want those answers, and that you want to achieve those goals. I'm here to tell you that they exist, and York Rite is where you find them. There are a lot of really cool "Oh, now I get it!" moments.
"Pay the craft their wages, if any be due..."
"Only in the presence of three..."
"Was there a word, or key to a word..."
"Until the wisdom of future ages shall find out the Right..."
"Hewn, squared, and numbered...."
"The Temple is nearly completed..."
Have I whetted your appetite?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-02 02:09 pm (UTC)Programming
As a non-programmer, I'd like sometime to have a conversation about the art of programming, how an individual style can be brought into a project, and how that makes a difference. I imagine that I have a concept of programming as way too much of an "exact science" -- that there's one Right Way to get the thing to work, and infinite wrong ones -- than is really the case.
(Oh, and, no pressure, but if you find the time, I wouldn't mind five questions from you.)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-02 02:18 pm (UTC)Far moreso, I expect. While it's true that there is often one best way to deal with a specific little nugget of problem, the overall job of building a significant program is usually much more engineering than science. Indeed, the *best* metaphor for programming is architecture, in almost every way: the ambiguities involved in how to get the job done; the way that science helps but doesn't define the outcome; the way that you *can* get the job done as a fellow craft, but it's much more satisfying to seek the master's path; etc.
I've often spoken out against the term "computer science", which is what the major is usually called in college, precisely because programming is *not* mainly a science, it's an engineering discipline and one that is still evolving rapidly. There's a little science to it (in particular, debugging, done properly, is science in the precise technical sense), but there's much more engineering to the journeyman level, and much more art to the master level...
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-02 02:11 pm (UTC)Honestly, I'm speaking about *looks* as much as anything -- I may not be very Jewish, but I certainly look it, and people will subconsciously factor that in. Much though we might want to believe otherwise, that matters -- not overwhelmingly, but it's a handicap. Religious questions I'm not that worried about -- frankly, I'd be more worried about being painted as an atheist, since my sort of vague philosophical Deism is a hard sell to a public that likes simple soundbites. But it all adds up.
(Not to mention the fact that I don't think I'm willing to compromise my principles enough to overcome those handicaps, which is the typical politician's way of dealing with it. You've got to have a fair amount of charisma to be able to afford having any principles in politics.)
As for York Rite: one of these days, yes. Won't happen in the next year (I am taking on precisely *zero* new commitments through next October), but perhaps after that...
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-06 07:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-07 03:18 am (UTC)