Charlie Hoey: The Tumblr: Programming Moments
Looking through some code, listening to Jackie Mittoo, realizing I just spent a good 20 minutes getting a lot done entirely inside my head. Just clicking around, reminding myself of where things are, reading some docs, sipping my coffee, making decisions. Untangling a knot.
I try not to forget that everyday we are building machines with our minds, little repeatable electron storms. Keyboards convert our ideas into tiny etchings of magnetic information on a hard drive, that when played back through an electronic brain, breathe and react to stimulus. Monitors magnify that process. Isn’t crazy to think about it that way? A terminal window full of code files is just a microscope for your hard drive. You’re writing things that move a little arm around that makes tiny electromagnetic dots on it. All these things are happening all day long. We’re instructing a robotic stylus how to etch a whirring platinum disc just so.
