
Larry Wall's Three Great Virtues of a Programmer - peter_d_sherman
http://threevirtues.com/
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peter_d_sherman
Related:

[https://medium.com/better-programming/here-are-the-three-
vir...](https://medium.com/better-programming/here-are-the-three-virtues-of-
good-programmers-e561e061ea19)

Also, here's my interpretation / rephrasing / translation of the 3 virtues:

Laziness (Larry Wall): "The quality that makes you go to great effort to
reduce overall energy expenditure. It makes you write labor-saving programs
that other people will find useful and document what you wrote so you don't
have to answer so many questions about it."

My Translation:

 _Efficiency. Choose the most efficient solution to a problem, and if there
isn 't one, then invent it. Automate any manual repetitive process that can be
automated, _even if* extraordinary large amounts of time and manual repetitive
effort are required to automate it in the first place! (Related: The 5th Labor
Of Hercules, The Augean Stables)*

Impatience (Larry Wall): "The anger you feel when the computer is being lazy.
This makes you write programs that don't just react to your needs, but
actually anticipate them. Or at least pretend to."

My Translation:

 _The Most Efficient Use Of Resources Possible (AKA "The Knowlege Of A Better
Way Of Doing Things"), the anger you feel when a better path / solution is
known -- but for whatever reason (management, etc.) that path / solution, is
not or cannot be taken. This makes you take the initiative, and ask for
forgiveness later (if you screw up), rather than permission earlier (that is,
never start on the solution if the answer from higher-ups early on is 'no')._

Hubris (Larry Wall): "The quality that makes you write (and maintain) programs
that other people won't want to say bad things about."

My Translation:

 _Pride in one 's work: The quality that makes you create solutions to
problems (in any domain or field) which are so elegant and well-engineered
they are light-years ahead of what anyone else in that domain or field has yet
accomplished (and thus, no one can criticize you without making themselves
look like a buffoon in the process...)_

(Example of someone who creates such elegant and well-engineered solutions:
Elon Musk)

