WP-A: A New URL Shortener

[Rick Johnson]

On Tuesday, March 15, 2016 at 7:23:12 PM UTC-5, Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn wrote:

(Note: i had to rearrange your paragraph to accommodate a more
intuitive response. I apologize for this, but i'm confident
i was able to maintain your original intent)

> You are giving bad advice to a junior developer, advising
> them to *waste* *their* *youth* developing for the recycle
> bin. Because what if it does not work out in the end?

But what if it does "work out"? There is only one way to
find out, yes?

> It can no doubt be educational to play with programming.
> But if actually the *entire* world says it [...] is a bad
> idea, then it probably is. Unfortunately, there is [...]
> the common misconception of the misunderstood genius, and
> that a real genius would sink so low as to do things just
> in order to prove everybody wrong. But to do so is not
> genial, it is outright stupid.

I completely disagree.

Even if the fruits of your labor end up in the recycle bin,
so what! There is always a valuable lesson to be learned
from every project, even if that lesson is: " Hmm, this was
a very bad idea, i should have considered the consequences
of this vector path more carefully".

But in many cases, one cannot foresee the failure, and must
travel *DEEP* into the investigatory process before the
failure becomes apparent. And just because one cannot solve
a specific problem, one would be foolish to conclude that
the problem has no attainable solution. One should simply
conclude, that they lack the intelligence to solve the
problem.

The worst attitude you can adopt is that of the pessimist,
who is defeated by his own "fear of failure" before he even
begins. None of us are Omniscient, therefore, we must realize
that in order to achieve any level of intelligence *GREATER*
than what we currently posses, we must be unafraid to reach
beyond our intellectual limits and into the "scary dark
corners" of the "unknown".

Yes, failure is highly likely in these "dark areas", and we
could be bitten by a spider lurking in the shadows, but
until we systematically map these unfamiliar areas, even if
necessary, with *BRUTE FORCE TRIAL AND ERROR*, we will never
attain a greater level of intelligence.

And perhaps some people don't want to venture "outside their
comfy little box". That's fine. But their defeatism will
never discourage me from actively expanding my "intellectual
horizons". Boxes are confining, intellectual or otherwise,
and i was born to be free!

The best method of achieving intellectual greatness, is to
take on projects/challenges that are well outside your
comfort zone. Don't worry, if you have a properly
functioning brain, then you already possess the *ONLY* tool
you will ever need to accomplish the mission.

The main reason i hang out here, answering questions, is not
so much to help others, but to learn. Learning is my primary
goal, and helping is my secondary. I have found that simply
"reading the archives" is not enough, because it is not
*READING* that motivates me to learn, no, it is the
potential of failure that motivates me put-in the extra
effort to ensure that my advice is good advice. And sure,
i've failed quite a few times, but do those failures bother
me? NO WAY! Because each time i failed, i made sure to
investigate and discover *WHY* i failed. I learned, and i
became more intelligent each time.

The same "motivational force" can be utilized when we post
our source code publicly. Every one of us, has source code
hiding in our repos that we would be ashamed to show
publicly (yes, don't lie!). Perhaps the code is not using
proper Pythonic style convention, perhaps it is missing
documentation strings, or perhaps, it is just some really
horrific algorithms that we have been too lazy to re-write.
Posting the code presents us with a high probability that
someone may find these "warts", and expose them. For that
reason, we will be motivated to repair these warts before
making them public.

So my point is: Don't be fearful of publicly posting your
code, or participating in online help groups, or, more
generally, stepping outside of your "intellectual comfort
zone" by taking on a challenging project. Because if you're
not failing on a regular basis , then that should be
*GLARING* indication that you're not pushing your boundaries
far enough.

"FAILURE IS A NATURAL BYPRODUCT OF THE LEARNING PROCESS" -- rr

> Want a more prominent example?  Linus Torvalds wrote a
> kernel for an operating system because, although it
> started his fascination for operating systems, MINIX did
> not suffice for *him*; only later he announced *on Usenet*
> (comp.os.minix) what would become the Linux kernel, and
> look what arose from that.  Because the people he
> announced it to thought, "Hey, that could be really
> *useful*!".

I too have dreamed of writing an OS, if for nothing more,
than to prove to myself i can do it. Because i know i can. A
few years back, i started hacking at the Python2.x source,
attempting to mold it into my own little version of Python,
but i had to abandon that project, after i discovered that
my design is incompatible with the basic nature of Python.
So now i've set a new, even bolder goal, to write my own
language from scratch. Yes, it will be much more difficult
task, but the unlimited freedom of a new build will make it
all worthwhile. And just think of all the wonderful
knowledge just waiting to be discovered during that process.