Re: Re: Overstepping Qualifications [was: Practice: Pair Programming, Sex, etc]

I feel free to talk about whatever's on my mind. I don't speak for XP, I
speak for Ron Jeffries, for XProgramming.com, and occasionally, for
Boskone.

I say things that are sometimes pragmatic, sometimes profound, very
occasionally witty, often stupid, frequently challenging, and more often
than I would like, just plain wrong.

I intend to continue to do that as long as I'm able. I would invite people
to listen to the ideas, not the name of the author.

Additional comments interleaved below.

Ron Jeffries
www.XProgramming.com
Comments lie. Code doesn't.

On Friday, November 12, 2004, at 8:09:35 PM, Chris Wheeler wrote:

> Lately, I've seen some examples of XP luminaries,
> dispensing advice that really has nothing to do with
> XP, but is made to sound as though it does (from my
> perspective, at least). I have tried to disentangle
> the way I feel about getting this type of advice -
> direct or indirect - from XP luminaries.  I'm talking
> about things like what it means to live a truly
> balanced life, how to feel towards people, what should
> motivate me, etc. Here's what I've come up with:

> * I feel amused.   There's just something funny about
> hearing these things talked about within the context
> of programming.

Well, let it be funny. I think a lot about my life, what's good about it
and what's not so good. I feel that there is value in reflecting on such
things, so I share my reflections in the hope that they will be useful. If
all they do is serve to amuse, that's good, amusement is good for people.
If they cause someone to think a new thought, that's even better.

> * I feel naive.  Are things like this really
> happening, and am just too ignorant to see them?

Things like what?

> * I feel condescended to.  My experience is that
> luminaries in any field eventually begin to dispense
> advice about things that they have no business or
> qualification dispensing advice about.  I'm not saying
> that is what happened here, but it is suspiciously
> similar and invokes the similar feelings.

Yes. I think about a lot of things and talk about them all, because it
helps me understand, and because I feel that ideas are always helpful one
way or another. I claim almost no qualification whatsoever for my advice:
it comes from my experience and so far I'm still alive. Beyond that, take
it for what you paid for it.

> * I feel like a loser, I feel judged.  If I'm not
> working out at the gym, or I'm working past 5PM, or I
> enjoy playing video games and chatting online,
> according to some luminaries, I'm not leading a
> balanced life, and need to get out more.

I am a fat old man who eats too much, does too little exercise, spends his
money on the wrong things, wastes way too much time reading email and
chatting on line. Once in a while I do something a little more right than
that.

I hope that makes you feel less like a loser. I don't even know what you
are up to, so I'm in no position to judge you. If you write something, as
you just did, I will think about that and reflect back what I thought.
That's not judgment, it's reflection and conversation. Even if by chance I
should happen not to agree. (At the moment, I feel like I'm mostly
agreeing, in case that wasn't clear.)

> * I feel like I'm an idiot.  After all, what kind of
> an idiot wouldn't already know the very simple rules
> explained here?

All of us are idiots and don't do things that we should. Simplicity is very
very difficult, as some of my sigs suggest. My guess is that feeling like
an idiot is a precursor to learning. I hope so, anyway, since I feel that
way a lot.

> * I feel dismissive.  Once I start to hear advice like
> this dispensed from people who I feel aren't qualified
> to give it, then I usually start to dismiss all the
> good advice that they actually give.

That's OK. There's lots of information out there, and we have to filter it
somehow. I try to filter it by thinking about it, but sometimes when it
hits me sufficiently wrongly, I can't take it in.

> Once again, these are my feelings, not right, not
> wrong, just complicated, like anyone elses.

Yep, just like and just as good.

> I think that the best advice about XP and life came
> from Phlip.  He said, "XP is a handful of books on how
> to program. Don't worship it."

> I tend to agree.

It's one of the best things Phlip has ever said. And one of the clearest.
Go for it!

End quotation from Chris Wheeler, on Friday, November 12, 2004, at 8:09:35 PM




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