In the last week or so, I have through many orientation-oriented activities. A lot of them have been good (many quite excellent) — a definitely not a waste of time.
Yesterday, in the CS Graduate Student orientation, Prof. Carlis spoke on "How to Be a Graduate Student." He had a number of good points. Some of the things he said and promoted are questionable aims, but there were plenty of jewels in his talk to make it well worth the time.
Paul Graham wrote an interesting article about the art of programming, particularly of holding a program in one’s head. He has a number of points worth contemplation, even if he isn’t spot-on in everything.
I find it interesting how well he describes how I operate. Reflecting on my time at the SCL, his descriptions parallel the types of things that let me keep going. I really did have Goanna in my head. I rewrote portions of it a lot. Several times, I was questioning whether my modus operandi was really in my supervisor’s best interest; there does come a point, I believe, that excessive rewriting, etc. is not a profitable use of time. But Graham does accurately describe how my mind was functioning. The times I was able to get the program fully loaded into my head, I was able to work for an extended period and accomplish good work. If I unloaded the program, or even unloaded a task, my work was difficult.
Some of you will be pleased to know that I actually have a blog again now. And this time it should stay up for a while.
I don’t have a commenting engine yet, but that is forthcoming. One thing at a time. RSS and summary links also have yet to be added.