Someone that I know only from online (irc efnet #coldfusion)sent me this message: "I was reading the Death Before Dullness article in the Make vol6 mag and immediately thought of you djuggler. :)" so I flip to page 14 and read the article, Following are the first 3 paragraphs:
I think many lightly organized geeks suffer from an overpowering fear of tedium. It’s part of being a novelty-seeking kind of person: when you get substantial amounts of pleasure from uncovering new knowledge, any task where you’re not learning — where you’re just repeating — is unbearably painful to pursue.
If you’re a programmer, there’s an additional level of suffering in drudgery. Doing the same thing over and over while coding, like copying and pasting the same function into different functions? That’s never a demonstration that you’re doing good work. It’s usually a sign that something is wrong with your code. You’re paid to remove redundancies. Programmers look at a task like weeding the lawn and think, "I’ve already done this. Why can’t I wrap it in a loop, and just run that?"
As a result, geeks often get themselves into terrible trouble because they cannot bear to do simple, everyday tasks — like pay bills on time, or fill in a tax form, or wash the dishes. It’s an aesthetic and moral offense. Better, says the subconscious, to be bankrupt and on the run from the IRS, eating from plastic cups and plates, than to have to do some brain-numbing piece of repetitious nonsense, even for a moment. Death before dullness!
Well now. That about says it. The rest of the article is equally great. Thanks atomi!
