On Programming

Recently, I had coffee with a friend of mine who happens to be an excellent programmer. I asked him about that blog that he was supposed to start, and he said, “Well, I can’t seem to get comments to work with Zope. Can’t have a blog without comments”.

I have seen that a lot (also in myself, mind you). There is this tiny detail that is in the way. It is like a little dwarf with a plastic sword guarding the entrance to your kingdom. Yet it also guards you from entering it! Think about it. The detail can be fixed in a jiffy. In this specific case, use one of those free comment services until you get your own system to work. I suggested that. He shrugged and gave me a “Yeah, but..” kind of body language. But … what? I believe the completion is something like “Yeah, but .. what if”. What if I don’t write often enough what if the stuff I write does not interest anyone. What if, therefore, I lose what I think is the building blocks of my identity and hence the reason I exist?

Kick the dwarf. Then move forward just one inch. See how it feels. The next one is just around the corner. It’s not a big deal.

What are your dwarfs? Have you encountered some lately? Do they have names?

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 2nd, 2006 at 19:55 and is filed under Procrastination. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.