I just finished a couple of episodes of the new season of Doctor Who, a cult classic from across the pond that I grew up watching on PBS with my father. The first time I ever saw the titles I was scared shitless of the
intro music and ran out the room crying, but that’s me at age four for you. Eventually the show grew on me and that was probably inevitable. There’s just something about an alien who acts like a know-it-all British twit and tries to teach all life forms, human and inhuman, a little something about carrying oneself with pride, dignity, and compassion.
The last
episode tonight was especially moving. It’s really something to see a person have a moment of insight into the existence of others, and the kind of revelation that insight can bring. It made me a little bit sad that we rarely try to understand opposing points of view on a human level, and instead of provoking a meaningful exchange, we end devolving the situation into snarky remarks. I’m talking to you, America. I’m a citizen and I’m sad. I’ve moved beyond outrage, disgust and disbelief to sad. It seems like dignity and compassion are values that are eroding at the top, and what kind of existence are we going to be left with without them? Also, I really want to look that fabulous in a rumpled suit and white canvas trainers.
In dork news, I attended a guest lecture today that proved to me that everyone in the dork community overreacts to everything and we all do this on a continual basis. Maybe it’s in the blood. Maybe it’s the constant flaming. In either case, the general punditry keeps on calling new innovations “insert-existing-innovation-here” killers or game changers or the most important new thingy ever. How often is this true? I would guess maybe one time out of five. Hundred. And the truth of aspect-oriented programming is that it’s a souped up version of functional composition and not a whole lot more. That’s not relevatory, and it’s not relevatory that’s that’s not a revelation, or at least it shouldn’t be.
I find it disturbing that although
there is no silver bullet in programming, we keep on trying to sell our new techniques the same way. Aspects will save us, services will save us, extreme programming will save us, tests will save us… the list goes on and on. The funny thing is that only thing that’s going to save us is common sense, which seems to be fundamentally lacking in a bunch of people looking for a prefabricated blueprint for salvation.
That actually sounded much harsher than I intended. I may still have some residual outrage and disgust.
