Machinist and Machine

Machinist and Machine I love coding so much. I don't mean software, I mean just writing code and talking to the machine. Many nights I open blank emacs and just stare at the non-blinking block cursor until something comes out. The sillier the better. Even if it's just a few symbols, sometimes its just for (;;);. Sometimes I open code that I consider beautiful, some Tromp diagrams, or K&R code. Every day I am reminded how far I am from truly understanding complexity and programmable machines. Now most code I write is just tokens. Tens of thousands of tokens per day, empty. I skim through them to decide if they will work or not, accept or reject them. Again, and again... I have no empathy or emotion towards them, I feel nothing, I have become the computer that evaluates them. From machinist to machine. I can feel it. I can feel how it is taking me away from the path of understanding. Every day, little by little. You must have noticed it too. I miss it. I miss programming. People say ... Read full article.