Those that Do
Reading blogs filled with opinions on the latest software/language/library tuckers me out. Now, if instead they were contributing to such a project and were hashing out their ideas and/or struggles in public, I’d be on the edge of my seat. Alas, there aren’t enough of those on the net. And really, it’s the nature of a blog to be mundane and mostly insignificant. Notable exceptions noted. So instead, I waste my reading time by keeping up with (active) software projects and hoping to witness progress. People write too well too often about software stuffs; I want to see results. Of course, I’m writing this in my blog, where none of my code lives. Oh well. For that there’s always greaterscope.net.
Continuing on, I’m a big fan of the efforts of Rob Landley. I may not be able to see the code he’s working on but I can read about it, which is good enough for now. It’s comforting just knowing he’s actually doing things. My favorite method (and seemingly his) of contributing to the betterment of computing is by consciously trying to improve software. This isn’t for everybody and many probably see it as less spectacular than coming up with brand-new things but I remain committed. I don’t want to be a revolutionary. The chance that a person will make a truly original contribution seems pretty slim anyway. But it’s not impossible, so even I occasionally entertain those dreams. Improving upon existing concepts just seems a more readily rewarding — and perhaps a more noble — goal.
