Learning about design....

Back to modern times: Alan Kay, one of the pioneers in object-oriented programming, the "notebook" concept, and pioneer in graphical user interfaces (which is basically OO software up to now), seems to have said:

"If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming high enough."

Just reflects that learning can be an exhausting adventure...

17th century Japan

I am reading the book "Narrow Road to a Far Province". It is about the adventures of a Japanese wandering-poet who describes many nice impressions of landscapes with mountains, water and the similarities of humans with other beings.

The book begins with:

"The passing days and months are eternal travellers in time. The years that come and go are travellers too. Life itself is a journey; and as for those who spend their days upon the waters in ships and those who grow old leading horses, their very home is the open road.

There came a day when the clouds drifting along with the wind aroused a wanderlust in me, and I set off on a journey to roam along the seashores."

Concert before lunch

Last Sunday, I went to experience a concert in the Staatstheater am Gaertnerplatz. The music was very interesting. It started with a clarinette-cello-piano Trio of Zemlinsky in D-moll. I was very much fascinated by the voice of the clarinette, but also the cello and piano had very interesting stories to tell. Then, there came a piece by Anton Webern for piano and cello. Strange sounds, clear and accurate, long pauses between the tones, no classical emotional story, very abstract. Now that I am reading about functional programming and polymorphism, I realize that this new viewpoint gives another tool to look at the universe and data structures. I also bought some books about finance and economics. The first principle of finance - the time value of money - I find very important: "A dollar tomorrow is worth less than a dollar today", still we should take care with our invests to respect our values to protect freedom and peace.