Hello, world!

Jason Bock keeps bothering me to start making my stupid ideas more public, presumably as part of an elaborate scheme to get me to say enough stupid things in public that I eventually find it impossible to find consulting work. Yes, if there's one thing Jason is about, it's finding a way to destroy me and my family. I'm not sure why.

But since I find Jason strangely persuasive, here it is - my blog, relentlessly driving me to a world of humiliation and starvation, seemingly avoidable, and yet completely unavoidable. It's like watching a Greek tragedy.

To kick this off, I'll answer the same set of questions that Jason himself answered...

How old were you when you started programming?

I took a computer programming summer school class in 1981, at the age of 10. I really, really hated it. I dropped out, and never looked back. Then in college I decided I wanted to be a physicist. I sucked at that, but I did enjoy wiring up cards to control experiments. So then I became enamored with electrical engineering. I sucked at that as well, but I did enjoy writing the device drivers for the cards we were making. So then I tried computer science, which I really enjoyed. I sucked at that too, but not as much. And people were (and still are) willing to pay money for sucky programmers, so I rolled with it.

What was your first programming language?

Technically, Apple Basic, but really I'd have to say Fortran 77, in 1990.

What was the first real program you wrote?

As Jason said, "depends on what you mean by 'real'". I guess I'd say some educational video games I did at JVC Digital Arts Studio in 1997. Everything before that was almost too simple.

If you knew then what you know now would you have started programming?

Yes, but instead of doing the C --> C++ --> Java/.NET route, I would've become a Unix-y/Lisp-y snob, and only taken certain kinds of gigs. I'd be smarter and happier at work had I done this.

If there is one thing you learned along the way that you would tell new developers, what would it be?

I'd echo Jason's sentiment: "learn core concepts". I've learned and thrown away about three technology stacks in my career so far, but if I knew a lot of algorithms and data structures and the Bash shell and Sed and Lisp and maybe C really, really well, I'd have something to hang my hat on. Everything else takes too much work and doesn't last long enough to add lasting value to your brain.

What’s the most fun you’ve ever had … programming?

The project I was on with Jason Bock was actually a ton of fun for a few months. I also had an insanely good experience at JVC Digital Arts Studio, and at a place called Gearworks. It's cool to get gigs where everyone is way smarter than you.