Tuesday, July 25, 2006

'Great' minds think alike :)

Earlier, I had written a post on the similarities between technology and art and how the two stem from the same core of human spirit. While browsing on some topic, I came across this article by Paul Graham which talks about the same thing.

As they say, 'Great' minds think alike! ;)

Comments invited as usual.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Any piece of work that models life or things closer to life is beautiful.Bcoz of the simple fact that "LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL"( even though it sucks to some sometimes :-)).

I particularly liked the two points below :
1. we need good taste to make good things
2. Saying that taste is just personal preference is a good way to prevent disputes. The trouble is, it's not true. If taste is just personal preference, then everyone's is already perfect: you like whatever you like, and that's it.

Some of the things I feel expressing my thoughts on :
{1}
Good design is timeless.
if you can imagine someone surpassing you, you should do it yourself.
{/1}
very true.

{2}
Good design is often slightly funny.
I think it's because humor is related to strength. To have a sense of humor is to be strong: to keep one's sense of humor is to shrug off misfortunes, and to lose one's sense of humor is to be wounded by them.
{/2}
simply loved the association between humour and strength.

{3}
Good Design is hard.
Wild animals are beautiful because they have hard lives.
{/3}
Am I the only one who remembers the fearless majestic walk of a tiger ?

{4}
Good Design looks easy.
Perhaps what practice does is train your unconscious mind to handle tasks that used to require conscious thought.
{/4}
what should one do if one is not that intelligent/talented ? Practise!
God has distributed unequal intelligence for a reason.Average souls do have a way to make a living.

{5}
Good Design uses symmetry.
The danger of symmetry, and repetition especially, is that it can be used as a substitute for thought.
{/5}
Takes me back to the first class on recursion.About how me and some of my classmates felt about the first recursive program.It was on multiplication. None of us understood recursion but each one of us had a cheerful look on our faces( then) as we felt this recursive program would fetch us marks with minimum effort.

{6}
Good Design is re-design.
Mistakes are natural. Instead of treating them as disasters, make them easy to acknowledge and easy to fix.Open-source software has fewer bugs because it admits the possibility of bugs.
{/6}
Feel like trusting this one!

{7}
Good Design can copy.
Attitudes to copying often make a round trip. A novice imitates without knowing it; next he tries consciously to be original; finally, he decides it's more important to be right than original
{/7}
when will novice decide that its more important to be right than original ? Fear of schedule slippage forces him to decide ?

{8}
Good Design happens in chunks.
Nothing is more powerful than a community of talented people working on related problems.
{/8}
Looks immensely theoritical and away from reality inspite of a real time example illustrated by the writer.

{9}
Good Design is often daring.
Intolerance for ugliness is not in itself enough. You have to understand a field well before you develop a good nose for what needs fixing. You have to do your homework. But as you become expert in a field, you'll start to hear little voices saying, What a hack! There must be a better way. Don't ignore those voices. Cultivate them. The recipe for great work is: very exacting taste, plus the ability to gratify it.
{/9}
completely agree with this one as it carefully points to the pre-requisite for a good design( understanding a field well, becoming an expert in a field)

kattricker said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Gops said...

Karthi,

As I told you, me has switched... :) Maybe I had to make myself a little more clear - the points Paul Graham makes, about good design being timeless, looks easy, and others - if you agree with them, and if you agree that good music is timeless/looks easy/ etc, then you have the similarity! :) I *know* this is one thing we'll both agree to disagree on :)

Anon,
Teasers, eh? About life sucking for some, sometimes? ;) I'll get back at you someday! :)

Oh, and BTW, I don't know if I fully agree about your comments on taste. Taste is personal preference. After all, weren't you the one asking why a piece of code had to be written one way when writing it another way was equally good? It is a matter of personal preference, unless we can find objective metrics of what constitutes the good and the bad of a field.

kattricker said...

=Rephrased from above=

Tried very hard to see the analogy - but didnt see much about "artistic technology" in Paul's article. But hey, that also means mine isnt a great mind! wont give up but... atleast not right now!! So keep watching this space... ;)

Goobe, btw enadru startup maadidiya hege?

Gops said...

Illa kano...plan ide, but too many things happening and not happening in life for that to get executed! :)