Here and Now

Shamus Young - a guy whose blog I encountered from a link from a link from a link years ago (heck, when we were living in Pittsburgh, if memory serves) has been doing a series on the " Crash of the dot.com " - from an insider's perspective. Interesting stuff. The latest posts (4&5) talk about doing a project of a virtual mall in 1999 and, in his words: We’ve combined the hassles and inconvenience of physical shopping with the uncertainty, learning curve, and security concerns of shopping online, and on top of that we’ve added the hardware requirements and navigation challenges of a first-person videogame. And it's a good read. But one of the commenters said something that caught my eye: As a junior programmer/team member, I found that I have two modes. Every time I join a company and/or project within a company, I start in mode number 1. At some point, I usually transition into mode number 2. Not consciously or intentionally; I’ll just notice one day that ...

In Exodus chapter 4 , God has called Moses to lead His people out of Egypt, and Moses is giving excuses. Here, Moses says, "What if they don't believe me?" God asks, "What is in your hand?" Now, I get the whole answering a question with a question technique. It can be pretty powerful, often allowing the original questioner to gain insight that he or she did not have before. But this is one obtuse question. Moses wants proof. Moses wants the secret handshake, the secret code, something to show to people, "God is real. God exists. God told me this." "What is in your hand?" Sigh... A staff. It's a piece of wood. It helps me when I walk. I use it to herd these pesky sheep. It's... just a staff. "Throw it on the ground." Wait, what? Why? You can imagine all the questions in Moses' mind right now. None of them are voiced, however. He throws it down, and it turns into a snake! Wait! How is that better? Well re...