Scree – Page 312 – Craig Constantine

Work mind and vacation mind →

Published August 4, 2013 · All posts on Aug 4

They are two different things, and yet, what if we could have the vacation mind while working? We’d have to toss out the lazing around and the margaritas, but the mindset could be the same. The result would be a saner way of living, where we aren’t “working for the weekend” or looking forward to the little vacation time we have, but instead are happier throughout the week.
~ Leo Babauta from, The Practice of Work Mind & Vacation Mind, Simultaneously – Zen Habits Website

Elsewhere, this is 4uzeze1. — slipbox

Craftsmanship →

Published August 2, 2013 · All posts on Aug 2

As aspiring Software Craftsmen we are raising the bar of professional software development by practicing it and helping others learn the craft. Through this work we have come to value…
~ Manifesto for Software Craftsmanship from, http://manifesto.softwarecraftsmanship.org

Over time, the ideal of craftsmanship was cordoned off to just the technical arts. Physicians and legislators no longer thought of themselves as craftsmen, but as philosophers and natural scientists who were more concerned with the theoretical as opposed to the practical. Such a shift is a shame, for the principles of craftsmanship truly do apply to every man, whether he makes furniture or crunches numbers.
~ Brett McKay from, Applying the Ethos of the Craftsman to Our Everyday Lives | The Art of Manliness

Elsewhere, this is 4uaome1. — slipbox

Try to ask a doctor or any engineer to do a crappy job in order to reduce costs. Engineers can change product’s materials to cheaper ones, they can change product’s final characteristics, but they don’t change their level of attention and their process of doing things the way they think it’s right. Doctors can perform simpler or different procedures by patient request, impacting somehow on the final result, but the attention, caring and cleanliness will be the same.
~ Caio Fernando Bertoldi Paes de Andrade from, Perception that high quality equals Rolls Royce

Elsewhere, this is 4ugodo1. — slipbox

6th gen prog lang →

Published July 31, 2013 · All posts on Jul 31 · Snark, Internet Tech

6th gen prog lang: when you yell to a co-worker, “yo! email me that binary.”

Sonder →

Published July 29, 2013 · All posts on Jul 29 · Thought and Philosophy

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows — sonder
Urban Dictionary: sonder
sonder – Wiktionary, the free dictionary

The realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own — populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness — an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk.

Skill at arms →

Published July 27, 2013 · All posts on Jul 27

Inevitably, if you are doing some kind of traditional Japanese martial arts, you will encounter the term te no uchi. In its narrowest context, it means how you grip your weapon. In a larger context, it means a kind of overall skill level for a craftsman.
~ Wayne Muromoto from, 75. Te No Uchi: Skill At Arms – The Classic Budoka

Elsewhere, this is 4uwote5. — slipbox

Vim koans →

Published July 25, 2013 · All posts on Jul 25 · Internet Tech

An old Unix master came to Master Wq. “I am troubled, Wq. You teach the way of Vim. vi is holy but Vim is not; its code sprawls, its features crowd memory; its binaries are vast, its behavior inconsistent. This is not the way of Unix. I fear you mislead your students. What can be done?”
Master Wq nodded. “You are right,” he said. “Vim is broken. Let us fix it. Shall we begin?”
~ Tom Ryder from, Vim Kōans | Arabesque

Elsewhere, this is 4ugevi1. — slipbox

Prosecutorial discretion you say? →

Published July 21, 2013 · All posts on Jul 21

Money that Bank of America spends asking its janitors to hose down the sidewalk is money it can’t use to buy Bed Bath & Beyond gift cards for its employees who are top performers at defrauding mortgagees.
~ Ken White from, «http://www.popehat.com/2013/06/26/an-exercise-of-prosecutorial-discretion/»

Be mindful of your negative thoughts →

Published July 19, 2013 · All posts on Jul 19 · My Journey

This entry is part 4 of 72 in the series My Journey

When we are unaware of our thoughts and urges, which arise in the back of our mind mostly unnoticed, they have a power over us. We are unable to change if these unbidden thoughts control us. But when we learn to observe them, we can then release their power over us.
Meditation is practice for observing those thoughts, for being more mindful of them throughout the day.
~ Leo Babauta from, Meditation: The Most Fundamental Habit – Zen Habits Website

Elsewhere, this is 4uzefu1. — slipbox

Meditation is literally the easiest thing you can add to your life — 5 minutes, 2 minutes, even 60 seconds will do you good. As I wrote elsewhere:

If you were handed a large bucket of sloshing and disturbed water and told to calm the water, you should simply set the bucket down and wait for the water to calm. You would definitely NOT shake the bucket in an attempt to convince the water to calm down.

Driving, texting, walking, rushing, typing, watching TV, playing games, talking, frenzied eating. Set the bucket down for a few minutes.

Javascript must die! Long live Javascript. →

Published July 17, 2013 · All posts on Jul 17 · Internet Tech

For want of a static language the type checker was lost.
~ Dariusz Pasciak from, «http://blog.8thlight.com/dariusz-pasciak/2013/06/26/for-want-of-a-static-language.html»

I don’t write much j/s, but I write enough. Enough that I shouldn’t feel like I’m always struggling to remember how to use an array. An array for crying out loud. “Everything’s an object.” Great. Why?

Start now →

Published July 14, 2013 · All posts on Jul 14 · My Journey

Maxim:

Dead last finish is greater than did not finish, which trumps did not start.
~ unknown

Elsewhere, this is 4a136. — slipbox

Corollaries:

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
~ Plato

Elsewhere, this is 4a116. — slipbox

Never throw in the towel. Use it to wipe the sweat from your brow. Then keep going.
~ unknown

Elsewhere, this is 4a69. — slipbox

The hardest part of any journey is believing you are able to begin it.
~ unknown

Elsewhere, this is 4a203. — slipbox