Great Quote from The Mythical Man-Month
The craft of programming gratifies creativing longings built deep within us and delights sensibilities we have in common with all men, providing five kinds of joys:
- The joy of making things
- The joy of making things that are useful for other people
- The fascination of fashioning puzzle-like objects of interlocking moving parts
- The joy of always learning, of a nonrepeating task
- The delight of working in a medium so tractable -- pure thought-stuff -- which nevertheless exists, moves, and works in a way that word-objects do not.
The Mythical Man-Month
I just finished reading this book, and I found it very insightful. I learned a lot about large software projects and some well known concepts in software development that I was not aware of. Here is my favorite piece of knowledge out of the whole book:
Brook's Law: Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later
Added to my Books list...
Applying to colleges takes soo much time
I've redefined writer's block: for the last three days, I have been trying to think of what to write for the Stanford 2007 Long Essay. It finally came to me tonight, so I am in the middle of writing a [hopefully] compelling enough piece of writing that an admissions officer who reads it will get tricked into thinking I'm smart and let me in :p. I don't deserve to get into Stanford based off of my scholastic achievements, so my essays are extra important.
Ah, yes, the title of my post: not that the actualy applying to college takes a lot of time, but the psychological trauma of the fear of not getting into any of the colleges I apply to is weighing heavily on my productivity these days.
Do they have therapy for post-application-depression? I'm going to need a good dose of it if they do... :D
I caught up on a ton of reading in Tahoe: I finished Built to Last, and read Freakonomics in two days. Freakonomics is one of the funnest books I've ever read, I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to kill some time -- it's not that long, about 200 pages, and can be read through really fast.
I’m reading “Built To Last”
I'm only four chapters into the book, and I am about to put it down. It has a lot of great research and sound principles behind everything they say, but I think the book is completely outdated. Who wants to build a company that lasts anymore? I'm talking about Web 2.0 when I say this. Look at all the companies in the valley though -- they either get bought out, tank, or turn into a "lasting" company (i.e., Google, Yahoo, Oracle). But those companies are very few and far between; there's no point in creating a company -- build a product off of a great idea and sell. I understand that there are probably hundreds of companies that don't have this model, but the majority do. Anyways, that's my opinion on this book so far.
Book reviews!
Last 4 months
Atlas Shrugged: 10/10 - Perfection from start to finish. It answered all of the questions that The Fountainhead left you with.
The Fountainhead: 9/10 -Rand was still perfecting her writing techniques and refining her philosophy.
The Likeability Factor: 6/10 - Was really good for the first 80 pages. Then you realize how repetitive everything is.
Wisdom for a Young CEO: 3/10 - Lots of great insight, but you can find that information anywhere.
The Little Red Book of Selling: 6/10 - Very practical and to the point, but I believe sales is something that you are born with. Either you can or you can't sell something; you can't learn the "art" of selling if you aren't born a salesman.
How to Win Friends & Influence People: 9/10 - Everyone needs to read this book. Seriously. Especially all of those Emo/Goth kids
And how ironic is this -- I started reading David Allen's "Getting Things Done" and I stopped 1/3 of the way through because I became so engulfed with reading The Fountainhead... Hahaha!
SO! In my bookshelf right now is a queue of about 6 books that I am reading next. Let me just list them, let me know if you've read them and what you think.
- Freakonomics
- Good to Great
- Built To Last
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
- The Tipping Point
- We The Living (Rand)
- Anthem (Rand)
Hopefully I can get through most of these by December...
MRS. OATES -- YOU WERE SO RIGHT ABOUT READING!!!
"The world belongs to readers"
Ok it's 12:30 and I'm going to start reading We The Living tonight.
Atlas Shrugged
I started Atlas Shrugged on September 26 and I finished it today, I think it took about a month and a half or so. Anyways, I would like to write a little bit about what I have learned. I would recommend this book to any entity with a pulse... Seriously.
The first thing I learned was the "virtue" of selfishness. A lot of people disagree with Ayn Rand's writings, but I think she is completely right on this topic. In the book, it says over and over again this quote --
I swear--by my life and my love of it--that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.
I understand all the arguments that people would have against this statement, but I think that if everyone looked out for themselves instead of relying on the charity of others, we would have a much, much more productive society.
John Galt's 60 page monologue was the most mind blowing passage I have ever read. There was so much philosophy in his speach that it took me over 4 days to get through the whole of it.
One thing that John Galt says in his speech is this (my version of it). When someone says "Who am I to know?", they are saying "Who am I to exist?". I've been thinking about that a lot lately, and I love what it entails -- people need to think for themselves. Her whole philosophy of a zero ruling non-zeros blew my mind, but it made so much sense. Another thing that I loved was in his speech --
The desire not to be anything is the desire not to be.
I would not only highly recommend this book to anyone, but I'll buy this book for anyone that wants to read it. I am going to re-read this book every other year for the rest of my life (alternating years w/ The Fountainhead), because it has so much to say about life, happiness, work, love, etc... Objectivism makes a helluva lot of sense, but I still believe in God and Christianity.
Her whole philosophy about those who rule by force is freaking GENIUS. People in Venezuela need to get their hands on a copy of Atlas Shrugged before that country is destroyed by Hugo Chavez.
Atlas Shrugged: first impressions
I have heard a lot of hype regarding Atlas Shrugged. I finished the first chapter today... Before starting the book, I googled it and came up with this article. Thought it was pretty cool. Anyways, I loved the first chapter; it reminded me so much of The Fountainhead. Rand is still introducing the characters and setting the scene, so I won't know much until I get to about chapter 10 on section 1.
:)
The three things you can live off of
Food, gas, and books.
I just looked over my statement for the last month, and those three make up for nearly $500 of my expenses. Well, books made up for about $350 of it; the rest is just gas and food... And you know what ? I felt like I've spent my money wisely for the first time in my life. Usually I would blow $500 on clothes (well, I'm about to blow $1k on new ski equipment and clothes :p, but that's justifiable...), but I think that buying books is almost as good an investment as buying food for yourself. I don't know why, but it just gives me that feeling.
Read to achieve. Seriously.
Finished with The Fountainhead, starting Atlas Shrugged
After three weeks of reading The Fountainhead, I am (sadly) finished with it. But that's not the last time I will read that book; I want to re-read it every year or every other year from here on out. I am starting Atlas Shrugged tonight, which I have heard rave reviews about. Have you read Atlas Shrugged ? What do you think of it ?
And I've added my teacher, Mario Landeros, to my blogroll. Nice to see a teacher up to speed with the rest of the world these days... :)
Egoism and Altruism
The Fountainhead deals with these two views at the core of every main character. Here are the definitions of each --
Egoism: the view that we are always motivated by self-interest or that we always should be so motivated. Contemporary rational choice theorists attempt to understand how actual social institutions can be based on the choices of individuals acting according to egoist principles. The prisoner's dilemma and other problem cases show difficulties with this approach.
Altruism: the view that the well-being of others should have as much importance for us as the well-being of ourselves. Some argue that altruism, even if it is desirable, is not possible, and that our ethics must be based on egoism.
The true definition of altruism can not, and will never be exemplified in a human being. The only person that has achieved true altruism is Jesus Christ (you could argue him to be an egoist). It's not possible to reach true altruism because nobody can possibly have absolute humility; even the most minute hint of pride negates the possibility of achieving it. But I don't want to come out against it either; look at what some of these billionaires have done -- Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Google.org have done and are currently doing some amazing things for the world as a whole. I have complete respect for all these people that are involved in helping others; it's a noble thing. But to say that anybody is a true altruist is fallacy.
And what's wrong with being an egoist ? Why can't one be self-sufficient ? Nearly everybody's (I leave out Mark Cuban :p) self-respect is defined by what other people speak over them. The "you are"'s become "I am"'s, as Pastor Greg said tonight at 1221. It's so true though; why can't we have our own images of ourself, and not care about what anybody else thinks ? What's wrong with that ? Sure, when someone tries to stick it to everybody else, they will take so much crap. But at the end of the day, you are not defined by what other people think of you; you are defined by yourself. Bleh.
The problem with me is I feel that I can't express in writing what is in my head; it seems like it doesn't make sense in words. It all works up in my head though. Anyways...
Read The Fountainhead. You wan't regret it.