Hi Phil, Indeed, I believe that losing site of meaning is a spectacular waste of opportunity. I often hear people arguing that it is hard to find meaning in a technology space, and as a consequence they also stop looking for it. In this situations, I tend to point people to the work of Viktor Frankl who found meaning in the Auschwitz concentration camp, and as a result he founded a whole psychology domain (logotherapy): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man's_Search_for_Meaning If he could find meaning there, we certainly can do the same in the comfort of our amazingly privileged life. It is to this end that I also argue that we should bring storytelling closer to our technical reality. For example, see this slightly older talk (notice the place of Pharo in that talk, too): https://vimeo.com/131632605 Cheers, Doru
On Jan 9, 2017, at 11:11 AM, philippe.back@highoctane.be <philippe.back@gmail.com> wrote:
Doru,
Wow.
I have to say that in the face of other technologies there is often the force that lures me back go them. But they do not have the same feel. This ability to understand and be able to dig down is unmatched.
I was reading this mail this morning and it echoes your point pretty nicely: "I hear a lot about "seeking meaning," especially in the face of tragedy and uncertainty. But how would you know it if you tripped over it? I doubt it's like the justice's definition of pornographyâI'll know it when I see it. I'd think our brief time here is about creating meaning, first and foremost for ourselves. When we have a lighted path, a goal for our journey (whether or not we reach our destination), we tend to serve a greater purpose. "Journey" comes from the French jornee which means a day, or a day's travels. It refers to our daily activity.
When we we are engaged in neither meaning nor happiness, we waste our days. When we are engaged in meaning but not happiness, we are sacrificing our days. When we are engaged in high happiness but little meaning, we are in a stimulating or addictive environment. Only when we are immersed in both happiness and meaning do we create an optimal, contributing life.
I don't know about you, but I'd prefer to take both my meaning and happiness out of others' hands, and create them both myself".--Alan Weiss
Definitely applies to our tech.
Happy New Year!
Phil
Le 9 janv. 2017 10:31, "Tudor Girba" <tudor@tudorgirba.com> a écrit : Happy New Year, everyone!
Over the last year, I went through a rather extensive tour and I directly exposed Moose, GT and Pharo to some 2000+ technical people through various sessions and trainings at conferences and companies. The tour will continue this year.
Most of the sessions are not directly about Moose, GT or Pharo, but about broader topics that are served through what we do around here. These topics can relate to solving problems without reading code, to steering agile architecture, or more recently, to even broader topics like software environmentalism. If you are wondering what software environmentalism is, please take a look at this talk: https://youtu.be/N3l3eB62oSw?list=PLqvTNJtc942Cs9Qo4ikCGrUNtAw93Q0JA
I now have the confirmation that there is a whole space which is unaddressed by mainstream technologies. Often people find themselves frustrated having to build their systems on top of opaque technologies with not much hope of understanding what is going on under the hood both because they do not have access to what is behind and because they are provided lack the tools to investigate. You see, developers are suppose to have the coolest job on the planet, and many of them are unhappy. This has to change, and we can do that.
In a conversation I had with a highly respected researcher, after explaining how our tools allow us to work, he noted reluctantly âso, you are claiming that you are practicing a fundamentally different software engineering?â. This question took me a little by surprise because the only answer I found myself being able to provide was âyesâ. I sent him this talk: https://youtu.be/XWOOJa3kEa0?list=PLqvTNJtc942Cs9Qo4ikCGrUNtAw93Q0JA
It is strange to be in the position to tell the world that we are constructing something fundamentally better, but I really do believe that we are.
I wish you a happy and bold new year!
Cheers, Doru
-- www.tudorgirba.com www.feenk.com
"Every thing should have the right to be different."
-- www.tudorgirba.com www.feenk.com "Some battles are better lost than fought."