Quote on Happiness - Ayn Rand

Happiness is not to be achieved at the command of emotional whims. Happiness is not the satisfaction of whatever irrational wishes you might blindly attempt to indulge. Happiness is a state of non-contradictory joy—a joy without penalty or guilt, a joy that does not clash with any of your values and does not work for your own destruction, not the joy of escaping from your mind, but of using your mind’s fullest power, not the joy of faking reality, but of achieving values that are real, not the joy of a drunkard, but of a producer. Happiness is possible only to a rational man, the man who desires nothing but rational goals, seeks nothing but rational values and finds his joy in nothing but rational actions.

Just as I support my life, neither by robbery nor alms, but by my own effort, so I do not seek to derive my happiness from the injury or the favor of others, but earn it by my own achievement. Just as I do not consider the pleasure of others as the goal of my life, so I do not consider my pleasure as the goal of the lives of others. Just as there are no contradictions in my values and no conflicts among my desires—so there are no victims and no conflicts of interest among rational men, men who do not desire the unearned and do not view one another with a cannibal’s lust, men who neither make sacrifices nor accept them.

I’ve heard whispers of a time when people could talk shit at pubs and not be audited by wikipedia on the spot. Where cognitive energy would need to be spent to work out your bug, instead of copying and pasting the error. Where you had to actually call your friends or family to see what they were up to.

I wonder what it was like.

I Fucking Google Everything

Source: wernah.com

Thoughts on being a programmer

  • Don’t be an asshole.
  • Simple code is hard to write.
  • Exquisitely simple code is exquisitely hard to write.
  • Just because it’s easy to understand doesn’t mean it was easy to write.
  • In fact, the easier it is to understand, the harder it probably was to write.
  • There are many ways to do something.
  • The first way you think of ishighlyunlikely to be the best way.
  • Anyway, there probablyisnobestway - just lots of ways that are differently good.
  • There’s always plenty of room for improvement - in your code, in your abilities, in you.
  • If you think you’re as good as you’re ever going to be - you’re probably right.
  • “One-line changes” aren’t.
  • Learn to desire success more than you fear failure.
  • You’re only old when you can no longer learn new tricks.
  • Always back up before tidying up.
  • RTFM.
  • Err vicariously.
  • Sometimesit’s OK to be a bit of an asshole. But don’t make a habit of it.

Great text from:
http://www.yelsew.com/thoughts.html