dchoung

I just ran into this nice little list of why a person likes to code. It is very succinct and I agree with every point.

I like reason number 1 the most, "I create worlds". There is nothing more satisfying than putting something together and watching it work.

For the rest click on the link.

I love frameworks. I think they're the greatest thing since for loops. I love them so much that I like to spend hours upon hours picking at them to see what kind of results I get. I've also come to the realization that I'm only human, and thus have a finite amount of time available in any given day.

I've come upon a sort of epiphany this morning. Sadly, or maybe not. It turns out that most of my <sarcasm>brilliant</sarcasm> ideas really don't need a full-fledged framework to get up and running.

No, in fact, they can most likely be tooled with a combination of Wordpress and BBPress, designed, and then released upon an unsuspecting virtual populace (who will probably never hear of it).

See, as much as I love frameworks, every time I dive into one for my 'brilliant' idea, I've found that 90% of the requirements for them can be met by using a simple pre-packaged CMS. As Mick from the Rocky movies would say, "Speed kills". If I have to choose between a framework and a CMS, speed being the primary factor, I would have to go with the CMS every time.

Of course, there are a million other factors to consider if suggesting this approach to others, but this is really just a personal realization.

Hackers & Painters is a good book. You have to keep in mind though, that it is actually a collection of essays, and not a typical start-to-end type of book. So, if some of the topics might seem a bit disjointed or don't seem to flow well from one to the other, it makes sense once you realize this fact.

Having said that, the main topics the book goes through seem to be:

• Why nerds are nerds
• What's a startup all about
• Programming languages

He also has an essay on dealing with spam that is equally interesting, but doesn't seem to fall under any of the 3 larger topics.

I found all 3 areas were more than sufficient to keep me interested and reading. The last section, about programming languages, was filled with lots of details on the history of languages, especially of Lisp (Honestly, it makes me want to at least check it out now).

Overall, this book is a good read. One great thing about the fact that it is a collection of essays though, is that you don't have to read the book through in a linear fashion. He even mentions that in the beginning of the book.