

Why Did why the lucky stiff Quit? (2013) - sea6ear
http://kevinw.github.io/2013/04/30/why-did-why-the-lucky-stiff-quit/

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thaumaturgy
> My programs would never live as long as The Trial. A computer will never
> live as long as The Trial.

I realized this, independently, years ago and it shook me down to my boots. I
was working on something, I don't even remember now what it was, some client
project probably, and I happened to glance over at the stack of books on my
desk, one of which was a 2nd edition camel book, and suddenly, there it was:
that book had outlived probably every single line of code I had written when
it was published.

A book about a programming language that -- unfortunately -- was rapidly being
pushed into the museum of computing history would outlive most of the code
written by anybody that ever read it.

I couldn't write any code for a few days. It seemed pointless.

Eventually I came to a new understanding with software development. It's like
spending your life making Buddhist sand mandalas. You spend your days, hunched
over a table, moving one little bit at a time, and if you're lucky, you create
something beautiful, and a short time later someone else will come along and
sweep it away and start making something else in its place.

It helps to be concerned less about the code itself than about what it does
for people. Sand mandalas give people an experience, and so does code: code
today helps people communicate, relax, learn, or spend their lives making
other things. There is a little bit of legacy in that at least, though nothing
that anybody will ever remember you for.

Programming is still an important part of me. I still try to write artful
code. I still feel a little bit of revulsion when staring at bad code (or,
worse, intentionally bad code). But I don't view it as my life's work anymore.
Software will never be my magnum opus, if I am lucky enough to ever make one.

Anyway, _why was one of the most beautiful things ever made by a programmer.

~~~
digibo
It feels like your last sentence defines what _why was, a beautiful creation.

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paulhauggis
It sounds like the guy just wants his privacy. He was even outed at some
point.

Can't we just leave him alone? Does it really matter?

~~~
scott_s
I do not think this essay adds to the pile, or violates _why's privacy. It's
musings on _why's work, particularly his most recent work, trying to
understand _why as an artist, and the author of this piece is then trying to
apply that understanding to his own life.

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tthayer
Because the internet is crazy. I don't blame him one bit.

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csvan
<3 Why

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knd775
Ooooo, this again. I love this. Why is such an enigmatic person.

