I Giggled 😂

Book of the week: Warrior of the Light by Paulo Coelho

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Things Programmers Shout #454

“A different error message! Finally some progress!” // submitted by @falterfire

Don’t let your idea of who you are become a prison. 

Meet yourself anew every morning.

Allow change.

Allow growth.

Allow yourself to become.

real talk tho you might feel like you aren’t doing enough or you’re behind or you haven’t set yourself up well enough and you aren’t in the right place but you can still work it out and there are beautiful, amazing things ahead of you. two years ago I had a 2.8, was on the verge of losing my scholarship, had no idea how to study, and wouldn’t have been able to handle a research position even if I knew how to get one. now I’m working in a lab, have tons of research experience, co-authored a publication, have an amazing advisor who is helping me with a honors thesis, and am set to do eight months of paid research abroad next semester. (and the 2.8 is now a 3.6). it’s not over, it can get better, you aren’t a failure, and wonderful things are waiting.

Margaret Hamilton (b. 1936) is a computer scientist and engineer who, as Director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, played an important part in the Apollo space programme. Her division was responsible for developing the onboard flight software for the missions that put the first men on the Moon, and she was the supervisor and lead programmer of the project.

She graduated with a degree in abstract mathematics, during a time when computer science and software engineering were not yet disciplines in their own right. She worked for the SAGE Project, used by the military in aircraft defense. Since 1986 she has been the CEO of Hamilton Technologies, an organization which she founded.

i want "Elle Woods getting into Harvard Law" level determination

Here is thing I learned when I was 29, which I now give away for free: If you want to do a thing, do it now, or as soon as feasible. Because there might not be a later. If it is a complicated or expensive or hard thing that takes many stages or has a steep learning curve, start working on the parts you can work on while you can work on them, then move on to the next thing. Accept that there will be a lot of failures along the way, and that you can come back from nearly any mistake that doesn’t involve making a left turn in front of an oncoming semi. Concentrate on yourself and what you can do, and don’t rely on other people to fix things for you, even though you might love them or they you. (This doesn’t mean you can’t love friends or family or partners. Friends and family and partners, in the long run, are the thing other than Useful Work and Adventures that make life worthwhile. Well, all that, and a really nice coffee and tea kit in the kitchen and the skill to use it. But that last thing isn’t terribly expensive unless you make it be.) But to succeed at a thing–a job, a relationship–in the long term, the thing is: You Must Commit, even though commitment is scary. And commitment is scary because once you’re in you’re in. It’s not bobbing around close to the shore, paddling with your feet. It’s both feet and swimming as hard as you can out where the rip currents and the sharks are, where the water turns blue. You can’t hold back because you’re afraid of getting hurt: you have to accept that you are going to get hurt, and put your hand in the fire of your own free will. It’s like climbing. You can make sure you’ve got good ropes and a belayer you trust (you SHOULD make sure you have good ropes and a belayer you trust!), but there’s moves you can’t make unless you’re willing to risk falling. I’m not saying follow your bliss off a cliff, in other words: part of being prepared and committed is having the right kit, whether it’s money in the bank for the lean times when starting off as a freelancer, or a partner who supports your work, or being young enough that starving in a cold room for a few years with pneumonia is romantic (I have the T-shirt!). That’s why it’s scary. It’s scary because you are taking an actual chance. But: things don’t work out the way you want them to if you just kind of drift along seeing what will happen. Nice things might happen! …but they didn’t, for me. Basically, what I figured out was that I had to be a protagonist if I wanted anything to happen, and part of being a protagonist was accepting that I might fail. And then have to deal with that failure. And that if I didn’t do it I would more or less inevitably fail, but I could pretend to myself that it wasn’t because I wasn’t good enough and that I didn’t know why. Seeking success, in other words, meant letting go of a layer of ego defense. This realization directly led to me having the career I always wanted, and doing pretty well at it. It also led to me having the best relationship of my life. I wish I’d learned it when I was sixteen, rather than twenty-nine, but I had some things I had to work through first. 

So that thing you want to do? Assuming it’s not illegal or immediately fatal? Do it now.

daily reminder ~

The thing about computer programming is that it’s a complete pain in the ass when you’re trying to figure out the problem, yet when you finally solve it, when you finally have that aha moment, the feeling of accomplishment is unlike anything you’ve felt when you’ve accomplished something. You think holy shit, I can make technology work, and that feeling is totally worth the long stretch of hours or even days when computer programming feels like a pain in the ass.