From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Emanuel Berg Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: computer and wheel time Date: Tue, 09 Jun 2015 17:46:34 +0200 Organization: Aioe.org NNTP Server Message-ID: <87h9qghokl.fsf@debian.uxu> References: <87d217b1jn.fsf@debian.uxu> <878ubt96gl.fsf_-_@debian.uxu> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1433864751 19311 80.91.229.3 (9 Jun 2015 15:45:51 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2015 15:45:51 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Jun 09 17:45:40 2015 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Z2LiY-0002uo-Ja for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 09 Jun 2015 17:45:34 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:35804 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Z2LiX-00085g-Sy for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 09 Jun 2015 11:45:33 -0400 Original-Path: usenet.stanford.edu!goblin2!goblin.stu.neva.ru!aioe.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 39 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: feB02bRejf23rfBm51Mt7Q.user.speranza.aioe.org Original-X-Complaints-To: abuse@aioe.org User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.4 (gnu/linux) X-Notice: Filtered by postfilter v. 0.8.2 Cancel-Lock: sha1:+jf0yAmrtcNnCwEjMPQsQO5Eq14= Mail-Copies-To: never Original-Xref: usenet.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:212587 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:104871 Archived-At: Daniel Corbe writes: > Eventually you begin to butt up against the law of > diminishing returns. Spending half an hour on > something that's going to save you 10 minutes every > day is a net gain; however, you'll eventually run > out of those types of problems to solve. > > Pretty soon you'll be spending half an hour on > something that saves you 30 seconds here and there > and that's likely to be a net loss. That's exactly right! I didn't know there was a name for it but it is something I've seen many times and yes, in Emacs as well. So the question is, why do you do the "loss" stuff? Probably because your brain is trained to think like that, because that has worked so well during the "gain" period! But equally true, people like Lisp. I wish there was a way that creativity and enjoyment could be positioned for everyone's gain. The problem with big software projects is that the programmer has not experienced that problem first hand so is alienated from the domain day one and when there is adversity he is much more likely to quit. It isn't exactly writing two or three defuns about six lines each, then try them and see they work and use them to solve the issues that arose ten minutes ago, and see them solved before your eyes. Especially to people who write code all days those innocent six-liners must be very refreshing indeed... -- underground experts united http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573