Silly newbie question - Caret character (^)

[Seebs]

On 2010-11-10, Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo at geek-central.gen.new_zealand> wrote:
> What was sad to me to read <http://www.seebs.net/c/c_tcn4e.html> was this 
> phrase of yours:

>     ... but rather, takes the shortest path to something that won't get
>     those complaints anymore ...

> To me, this is the sign of someone who doesn't really enjoy what they do. 

Yes.

I both write and program, and I do them because I love them.  If I won
the lottery tomorrow (and hey, my chances are only very very slightly lower
than everyone else's), I wouldn't stop programming or writing.  I might
change my focus some, but both of them are things I'd keep doing.

> Because somebody who cares about what they do would take the trouble to get 
> it right. But if he can't be bothered, why does he keep doing it? There must 
> be more pleasant ways of getting a meal ticket...

It's hard to say.  I get the feeling sometimes that he's one of the people
to whom programming is sort-of-fun, but not fun when you have to get all
persnickety about it.  Similarly, writing is fun if you're getting praised
for it, but dealing with criticism is harder.  (Trust me, I know of this;
I have gotten a fair number of corrections over the years.)

That said, I suspect he's made a fairly large amount of money; multiple
bestsellers is a pretty good way to make a decent bit of pocket change.

I may have my gripes about Python, but I will say this:  The Python community
seems full of people who are passionate about writing good code.  I would
much rather be in a community of people who care a lot about how I should
do things, but I think they're wrong, than about people who figure anything
that the interpreter accepts is fine.  I can learn from people I disagree
with, but not from people who don't care.

-s
-- 
Copyright 2010, all wrongs reversed.  Peter Seebach / usenet-nospam at seebs.net
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