
The Codeless Code - Tales to make wiser programmers.  - rajatkhanduja
http://thecodelesscode.com/contents
======
qi
Many thanks to those who emailed me directly as a result of this posting. I
very much agree that these do not approach the subtlety (and worth) of genuine
koans: they are just stories I was possessed to write, expressing various
thoughts I have had during my years as a software engineer. I am glad to know
that some have found them enjoyable; that was always the point.

Regards to all here,

Qi.

~~~
eragnew
thanks for sharing these. i enjoyed reading some of them this morning, hope to
read the rest soon :)

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boxein
These lack the subtlety of the koans they are attempting to emulate. It's more
like Aesop's Code than Codeless Code.

~~~
drostie
Agreed. What they inherit from koans appears to be merely the violence that
the koans take for granted. My favorite example of this is the story of
Gutei's Finger:

    
    
        It is said that Master Gutei would always raise a finger wisely when
        teaching about Zen. Now in his monastery there were young boys studying
        to be Zen masters themselves, and one boy, when he was asked questions
        by his teachers, began also to raise his finger when answering Zen
        questions. The teachers told Gutei about this and Gutei summoned him to
        a rare audience with the master! Gutei asked him a simple question which
        the boy could answer confidently, and the boy raised his finger as he
        responded.
    
        Gutei immediately grabbed the finger and in one motion cut it off with a
        concealed knife. The boy screamed and ran to the far side of the room.
        Gutei called him to stop and return, and the boy recovered his composure
        and plodded back in front of the master. Gutei raised his own finger
        before the boy, and in that moment the boy was enlightened.
    
        Indeed, on his deathbed Gutei's last words were: "My teacher Tenryu
        taught me the Zen in my finger, and though I used it my whole life, I
        couldn't use it up."
    

I think the first thing anybody notices about this story is just the violence.
When I told it to my brother he asked, "the lesson is, do not f--k with the
Master?" But there is a deep set of Zen ideas -- lifting fingers which you do
not have, and not getting attached to idiosyncrasy. Perhaps the boy even
thought, "I should cut off the Master's finger," as he attained enlightenment.

~~~
Estragon
Violent koans aren't particularly common, they just stand out. However, they
do reflect a fundamentally destructive aspect of spiritual practice, namely,
that it undermines the conditioning behind cherished identities. The point of
the story is that the boy was chasing after validation as a Zen master and had
adopted the finger-raising ritual as a part of his identity as a competent Zen
practitioner. When Gutei cut it off, he was removing a support for a cherished
identity, and this was the basis for the boy's identity at that moment.

~~~
Estragon
s/basis for the boy's identity/led to the boy's enlightenment/. True as
written, just a bit redundant, and not what I meant. :)

------
SamuelMulder
A young monk gazed over the walls of the temple at the town in the valley
below. Upon seeing the townspeople toiling at meaningless tasks, he asked the
master, "Why do they not seek enlightenment?"

The master replied, "They are unaware of the darkness."

The monk resolved to help the townspeople, and began every day to lecture
about the importance of enlightenment in the temple square. Every day, his
fellow monks cheered and applauded his speech, and reassured him that he spoke
the truth.

After a week, the master approached the monk and asked whether he was making
progress with the townspeople.

The monk replied, "I keep exhorting them to seek enlightenment, but not a
single townsperson has stepped foot inside the temple."

The master shook his head sadly and went on. After another week of preaching
in the temple square, the monk still had no success. In frustration he sought
out the master, asking "Why do the townspeople remain unenlightened?"

After a moment of silence, the master replied, "The fool searches in the light
for that which is found in darkness."

------
msluyter
As someone who used to read a lot of books on Zen, I've been enjoying these.
The one on triggers made me laugh -- at work we have a running joke about
triggers. I've expressed so much dislike for them that when discussing a
problem people will say "we could use triggers to do that!" just to get a rise
out of me.

~~~
haberman
People likewise goad me at work by suggesting extensive use of design patterns
(particularly in absurd combinations like AbstractFlyweightFactory).

~~~
eru
At my shop we use extensive use of point-less _ahem_ point-free code. Of
course, you can also always use more category theory. And, the best remedy
against the type system giving you headaches, is: more types!

(If you haven't guessed, yet, we use Haskell.)

------
Radim
No need to be so negative. I actually think the S&M character of these stories
goes well with their content (Java development and best practices).

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morphics
I quite like these. Regarding the negative comments, these stories were not
intended to conform strictly to the traditional kōan form, and are clearly not
expected be taken entirely seriously (the About page makes this clear!)

As a personal bonus for me, the author makes reference to the book "Gödel,
Escher, Bach", of which I was somehow not previously aware. It sounds like
it's right up my street.

~~~
X6MW3aQrZU5VKkz
I cannot recommend this book enough. I know it's not for everyone, but if
you're one of those do like it you'll probably never forget it. I'm not sure I
agree with everything in it, but damn that book made me think ;)

~~~
pmiller2
I'm not sure GEB is intended to be agreed or disagreed with.

------
jewel
This reminds me of the book called "The Tao of Programming", from 1987. If you
like these you might consider checking the book out as well.

~~~
DanielBMarkham
"The Tao of Programming" was much, much better. Great book as an introduction
to OOP.

~~~
TheSOB88
Haters gonna hate.

Not everyone can be incredibly incredible.

~~~
sp332
There's no hate in that post. (Unless it's been edited)?

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tiglionabbit
Can anyone explain the one on cups? <http://thecodelesscode.com/case/30>

~~~
egiboy
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two%27s_complement>

~~~
tiglionabbit
Ah. I was confused because of this: "the index — a one-byte integer — could
never exceed 255 by definition." If it can hold the value 255, it couldn't be
a signed integer, so there would be no room for negative numbers. Though I
suppose this must have been their mistake.

------
NHQ
Is the Elephant’s Footprint Clan hiring?

------
grout
"Satisfactory."

------
gshakir
Some stories reminded me of "Kung Fu Panda" !!!.

~~~
jps359
Haha, I actually thought the same thing.

~~~
gshakir
Good to know that I am not the only one.

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userulluipeste
God help us from those kind "enlightenments".

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vegas
This is extremely lame. Cool graphic on the side though.

