Self-Interest vs. Others Interest

From "The American Ruling Class", a movie:

It's like this. Imagine a big sea saw and one end is on the ground, because it has a basket half full of rocks in it. The other end is up in the air, because it has a basket one-quarter full of sand. And some of us got teaspoons and we are trying to fill it. And of course most people are kinda scoffing at us. They say, "Don't you see it's leaking just as quick as you are putting it in? People like you been trying for centuries, but it's never going to change." And we say, "You might be right, but we think we get more people with teaspoons all the time and one of these days that whole seasaw is going to go zooop, and people will say 'Gee, how did it happen so suddenly?' Us and all our little teaspoons, over the centuries."

Makes you think. In life, are the two mutually exclusive? Does pursing one not beget the other? Politics for others gets you recognition for the self; and starting a company forces you to give jobs to others... for example.

I keep Quitting

You know, as I get into discovery mode, and naturally I get overwhelmed, I find myself “looking for alternatives” which is really a kind of quitting. It’s like saying: I cannot go on like this; there must be something else. There is, but not nearly as good as Eclipse. Yes, it is an over-engineered, overkill monster of complexity. But I don’t have to retain that. In fact, I could work to reduce it and use it.

So, I’d like to help myself a little to reduce the energy I spend finding alternatives to instead spending the same energy discovering what I can. And maybe switch energy from “getting things to work” to: discovering, reverse engineering, and learning. That's what I think Eclipse and the open source world at large is best seen as. Instead of “inventing” things, maybe I could sharpen my skills of anticipating existing "inventions" and using them. Oh, yes; helping myself staying the course in Eclipse: no more searching for alternatives, I’m sticking with Eclipse till completion.

The Mind of Absolute Trust

I was read this wonderful poem a book called "10 poems to last a lifetime":

The great way isn't difficult for those who are unattached to their preferences.
Let go of longing and aversion, and everything will be perfectly clear.
When you cling to a hairbreadth of distinction, heaven and earth are set apart.
If you want to realize the truth, don't be for or against.
The struggle between good and evil is the primal disease of the mind.

Not grasping the deeper meaning, you just trouble your minds serenity.
As vast as infinite space, it is perfect and lacks nothing.
But because you select and reject, you can't perceive its true nature.
Don't get entangled in the world; don't lose yourself in emptiness.
Be at peace in the oneness of things, and all errors will disappear by themselves.

If you don't live the Tao, you fall into assertion or denial.
Asserting that the world is real, you are blind to its deeper reality;
denying that the world is real, you are blind to the selflessness of all things.
The more you think about these matters, the farther you are from the truth.
Step aside from all thinking, and there is nowhere you can't go.

Returning to the root, you find the meaning;
chasing appearances, you lose there source.
At the moment of profound insight, you transcend both appearance and emptiness.
Don't keep searching for the truth; just let go of your opinions.

Meaning Reduction

Well, now that I’ve been able to not listen to some of my thoughts, feelings, and moods as fatally as I thought I had to, and now that I’ve been just living, sitting, and just being in “no plan” and seeing that I’m still ok, and now that I’ve been (on top of that) playing with my time and not doing things “I’m supposed to do” and also seeing that I’m still ok… I’m realizing I could extend that to everything else in my life in general and to my interest in automation and programming in particular. What if I program and explore those interests (and they are just interests) as a frivolous activity? What if I live the rest of my life in all of its areas from a lightheartedness of frivolous activity, of play, of non-serious non-fatal action?

Really, if every moment counts, no particular moment (in the past or present) should be more privileged; especially if it is not real and merely a memory I’m wallowing in to play out my self-beating, or a mental simulation from an endless queue of simulations meant to protect my weak sense of self or grip on solidness, which is made-up anyway just like self-confidence.

So, here is a thought. What if I spend some of my time exploring something I really enjoy, like programming and not be afraid of it because I put on to it all the burdens of my heavy weak sense of self? What if I do it just like I play with my stupid Android games, or slightly more involved PC games? And then when I’m done, I lay it down. And when I feel obsessed I notice it and try to put it down but never feel *I have to* keep doing it, let alone doing it in a particular way *my mind* approved of? Or is approving of?

Where the Market is Going to Be

From Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston

I am not a hunter, never have fired a gun, but I'm told that if you want to shoot a duck, you have to shoot where the duck is going to be, not where the duck is. It's the same with introducing technology: if you're only focused on the market today, by the time you introduce your solution to that problem, there'll probably be several others already entrenched. It will be hard to dislodge them, and hard to convince people that what you have is so much better that they should make a change.

Clojure Type Definitions

Which Clojure type definition flowchart