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February 13, 2006
Know the Ways of All Occupations
While reading an essay by Donald Knuth, in his book, Literate Programming, I came across this sentence:
I have felt for a long time that talent for programming consists largely of the ability to switch readily from the microscopic to the macroscopic view of things, i.e., to change levels of abstraction fluently.
This is spookily similar to the advice given by Miyamoto Musashi in his book, The Book of Five Rings:
In the Way of the Martial Arts, you must consider Head of a Rat, Neck of a Bull constantly and repeatedly. No matter how engrossed in the details you are you should suddenly show great heart and exchange the great and the small.
It has been a while since I had considered another piece of advice given by Musashi, to know the ways of all occupations. If programming and swordsmanship can share principles then it is advice I should follow more diligently.
Posted by JohnC at February 13, 2006 10:10 PM