I often refer to the things other people do with computers as magic.
I kind of want to talk about why, and try not to sound like an idiot while I do so.
There's a lot of computer-related stuff I'm good at. I can built tools in T-sql. I can connect VBA to a sql server. Hell, I can tell you why a two-pivot quick sort is preferable to a one-pivot quick sort, and I'll mostly understand what I'm talking about. I just about cried when I understand Euclid's theorum, and cursed my own dumbness for not figuring out the two-pivot quick sort.
I know things, is what I'm saying. I've got a small degree of cred. And a masters in philosophy.
But.
My stack is a really high level one: Plugging together data and, basically, addition. I do addition, just over and over again. Sometimes, I do subtraction.
How the hell the SQL server works? That's magic. Ports? Magic. . Servers? Magic. Hell, indexes? That's kind of magic.
Hell, indexes? You're going to store every value in some magic location and that's going to make joins faster? OK ...
Other people do work that is really hard -- like building integrated circuits -- and that somehow means I can get paid to do logic puzzles.
That's so astonishing.
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When you stand on the shoulders of giants, who stood on the shoulders of giants, who… the ground gets lost in the haze pretty quick.
ReplyDeleteJay Treat That right. And maybe its proletariat all the way down, ground to dust under the heel of their corporate masters.
ReplyDeleteit's peasent turtles all the way down.
ReplyDeleteMy brain is making excuses: Newton and Russell were pretty rich. Whitehead was so privileged he made sure Russell went to rich prison. Bayes was a rich-ass reverend. Babbage refused a peerage.
ReplyDelete... Whatever. Point is, when Cinnamon Bunny starts talking, I think she is talking sorcery because she's a wizard who can sing the rhythm of reality and would make Gandalf return to the West, realizing that the world of middle earth has created his superior.
Basically.
That's funny, because I'd rather play with circuits than learn to pivot anything. And I can code stuff that makes stuff move and tosses data around but web frameworks like Rails make me feel like a moron.
ReplyDeleteBut the sorcery we are currently discussing elsewhere is teachable and only requires a few simple tools. Feed me and I'll teach you it ;)
I have access to food. Come down to Virginia sometime, and we'll make that happen.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's all open source. Read the source, Luke.
ReplyDelete