Watching Programmers Think, Helps Me to Think Also

Watching good programmers, that is. Bad programmers make me a bad programmer also. And there are quite a few of those.

This is part of a more general observation that bad people make more bad people - and good people make more good people. We are social beings, and are profoundly affected by the people around us.

If we are part of a good society, it is easy for us to be good also. If we are part of a bad society, it is easy for us to be bad also.

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How could we go wrong? By deciding there was no such thing as good or bad!

And no need to make a good society.

The Bad is Powerful and Strong, the Good is Weak and Flabby

I sometimes wonder about the huge change in America, back in the Fifties. Coming out of WWII, there were plenty of small businesses, and my father was the proud owner one of them - a photography studio, in Ft. Madison, Iowa. His business was his whole world - but twenty years later, it was gone, never to return.

This was also true of the family farm, another small business, that for many independent people, was the best way of life for them. It was gone, and would will never return.

This huge change was accompanied by, and probably caused by - a huge change in the attitude of the American people. A change in the kind of world they wanted. A world dominated by Big Business - and a society obsessed with Power.

The key word here was - Power. Americans had to be more powerful. And they wanted a society that made them that way.

This was strange, because coming out of WWII, America was the most powerful nation in the world - by far. But Americans felt threatened anyway. They could not identify what threatened them - and this made them even more insecure.

They were threatened alright, but these threats came in the form of their entertainment - the Movies, and then Television. They were seduced by them - without their realizing it. Especially Television, that kept them entertained (for free!) but also showed them how to live - like the people on the screen. That lived in a world that was better than the real one. Instinctively, they knew it was more powerful.

And they were right - it was the most powerful force in the world. One that could command the hearts and minds of the masses.

This brings up another subject - the Masses, first identified by Ortega y Gasset in the Thirties. This new kind of people, thought and acted as one person - a huge, powerful (but not very smart) Person.

That had no idea what was going on - and didn't want to know.

The Open Society

I just downloaded a new book The foundation for an open source city. One of them being Raliegh, North Carolina. He dedicates his book

For the open source, open government, and open data communities

He says this about open source

For me, open source is more that just software development. It’s a philosophy, a culture, and a framework for how to work collaboratively.

This idea is not new - Karl Popper wrote about The Enemies of the Open Society - one of whom was Plato!

Its easy to be cynical about his attitude toward openness. But I learned about this book from O'Reilly - a publisher of computer books, and many computer events. The more advanced people in the computer world, desperately want to make themselves acceptable to the better people elsewhere.

And they are painfully aware of how few computer people are this way.

Jacky's Pupusas

Jacky is from San Salvador, where Pupusas were invented. I was glad to see she was busy today, because Ticas are not used to her food, and regard it suspiciously. 

She sets up this stand every Friday morning, then takes it down later in the day. Saturday morning (today) she sets it up again. It's hard work, but she is used to that. 

The Pupusas are fried on a grill. The small ones cost $3 and and big ones $4. They are served with a slaw of grated cabbage, and tomato sauce. I like the taste myself. 

My First Girlfriend

I'm annoyed that this is the only surviving copy of this photo. Maybe I can work on improving it some.

My mother set this up herself, and was one of her favorites. It was taken in my father's photography studio, and the original was a perfect as he could make it. 

Mother was fond of romantic attachments between church members. She would not thought have kindly of my kissing a non-church member. 

The girl is holding her little hat - I knew, even at that age, that you had to get some of their clothes off. 

Photos From the Other Side of the River

A river runs through the middle of Orosi. Most of the people live in the west side of it, because more water is available there, and most of the businesses - such as the bank.

The east side is quieter, and good for a scenic bicycle ride. All these photos were taken there.

If you look closely, you will see the front wheel is slightly bigger than the rear one. But the internal gearing keeps both rotating at the same speed.

Front of the same tractor, with a heavy-duty, complicated mechanism to let the front wheels turn. 

Launching a raft into the river. There a rapids below here that give a good rafting experience - for about 15 minutes. But they have never done a raft trip before, and enjoy the experience. 

A kayak goes along to rescue anyone who falls out. 

Post-Truth: The Dark Side of the Brain

Scientific American

We have always known we are both good and bad - in about equal proportions.

This article, however, is not interested in morality (which is part of philosophy) - only in brain science. And it shows how our brains, are not up to the extreme demands of contemporary life.

Here is a quote:

• Many political leaders have recently taken to making fanciful statements. These assertions combine with the mass of false information circulating on the Internet and influence public opinion. People no longer seem to care about objective reality. We have gotten to the point where experts now refer to the era of post-truth.

After posting about this article, I went back and read it again. I liked the way it ended:

We are at a critical juncture. It may never be more important to make the most of our extraordinary ability to invent alternative worlds and to learn to enjoy them without confusing them with reality.