THE SIMPLE THINGS

There is no ultimate meaning to life. Not in the sense of purpose. It’s claimed that over 99.9% of the species that ever existed on the planet have become extinct. And that at one point in the history of our evolution, homo sapiens also almost became extinct – approximately 900,000 years ago. While not everyone agrees of the exact numbers of this bottleneck, many anthropologists say that this number was less than 2,000 breeding individuals.

And so, we were almost not here.

And one day we won’t be.

In the short amount of time we’ve been on this planet, say 200,000 years at the most, we’ve done a lot. So much so that unlike most species that have been on earth, we’re quite invincible. From being hunted, we are now the hunter.

And there seems to be no end in what we can do.

WHAT NEXT?

Now that we do not actually need to work for food or shelter or even the opportunity to propagate our species, what do we actually have to do? Designed with the physical bodies to walk, climb and swim and the intelligence to build things to make walking, climbing and swimming obsolete. All that’s left is the use of our brains.

But we have lost the desire to simply enjoy the simple things. Simply being alive and breathing. I can imagine that our cave ancestors, who didn’t live as long as we did, probably not even into their twenties, were fully engaged in making the utmost of each sunrise. Imagine not knowing if today was going to be your last day because that decision was not in your control.

Constantly thinking about survival.

Enjoying the quiet moments when they don’t have to fight for survival.

Enjoying simply being alive – because they’re surrounded by so much death.

And we are the products of that bravery, of that determination, of that creativity, of that will, that ingenuity. Yes, lives were lost because survival is a trial and error game. The groups that confronted the sabre tooth tiger taught the other groups not to do the same. The ones that invented the spear learned that they did not need to be afraid of the sabre tooth tiger, and in fact could turn the match around.

To paraphrase Isaac Newton, if we have seen further, it is because we have stood on the shoulders of giants. Our ancestors.

What’s next is to rediscover the spirit of that creativity and ingenuity. All around us, much more than our ancestors had are incredibly amazing things. While science has reduced the numinous to mathematical equations, leaving little to wonder, there’s perhaps still room to appreciate the moment.

UNIQUE & ENOUGH

In my opinion, Max Erhman’s 1929 poem titled, “The Desiderata” hones in the struggles of modern existence. While known, most of our stresses are mental. Fear of the future. And that fear results in physiological changes similar to the mortal threats faced by our ancestors. Scared of eviction increases levels of cortisol just as it would have when our cave ancestors heard a growl at the entrance. A letter from the income tax agency evokes the same feelings our sitting-duck ancestors felt when caught in the middle of a savanna with a lion staring straight at them, the safety of the forest too far to get to.

The Desiderata tells us ultimately to “be cheerful, strive to be happy.” And also that “many fears are borne of loneliness and fatigue.” Indeed when I read this poem the first time, many years ago, when I was much younger, it seemed empty like many self-help books. The commandments in most self-help literature seems very obvious. And you’re commanded to seek out practices that emotionally lead to less stress. Less anger. Less frustration.

But they never tell you how, not precisely anyway. Phrases like “believe in yourself” are positively annoying. “Have faith in yourself,” or “take time to meditate and be still,” aren’t in any form helpful. But the success of this material is evidenced by the sales of self-help literature in the bookstores. People are floundering emotionally and nothing they do to distract themselves from the normal business of keeping busy makes them happy.

And taking long walks in the park isn’t for everyone.

I believe that the ultimate solution lies deep within the soul of the individual. And it’s not a complicated one. It’s actually quite simple. It does ultimately begin with stepping back from the rat race and being quite selfish and thinking solely of yourself. Not obsessing with following anyone, or any instruction from anyone, including “the experts.” We are unfortunately brainwashed by our parents, guardians, schools, religions, culture early in life and so by the time we are self sufficient and standing on our own, we believe that the only way we can do this is by obeying and following the rules which are now fully encoded in our DNA.

Our ancestors knew that being unsocial was a sure way to get killed. You needed the group, the herd. Together we’re stronger.

But that was at a time when we were being chased by tigers and animals much stronger than we are.

Today, those same fears are not realistic. We do belong to many different groups but not in the same way as our ancestors. We do not need the same fight or flight responses to threats like they did, and we certainly do not need the same social crutches demanded by societal norms.

As long as your preferred way to spend your day doesn’t conflict with your day job, you’re free to act and think and spend your time according to the things that actually make you want to do them. In addition to that, remember that everyone else around you has that right.

You are not answerable to anyone (except, of course, your job and the government) and so do not feel the need to answer questions that start with “why.” But if you are new to this game, feel free to answer “because!”

BE SIMPLY YOU

Now, to get things straight, I’m not saying “be yourself,” I’m actually saying to be just whatever. Just be. I do believe that there is a uniqueness in each person and it’s a waste of time to try and explain your actions, or thoughts, to anyone. That rambling continuous discussion that goes on in your head is uniquely yours and by the time you’re thinking that you would like to behave this way or that, it’s impossible to articulately convey that decision (or feeling) to anyone else, since you arrived at it after a very, very lengthy internal debate.

This thing called the “gut feeling” is inexplicable.

For myself, it feels like the following:

• I’ll get up and spend time alone (not with people) till I’m good and ready (usually closer to noon).

• I’ll sit and write garbage, and doodle, and colour.

• I love computer code and write code daily.

• I love my motorcycle, and I’ll ride 20 miles to buy milk.

• I often sit outside and just stare at the trees.

• I don’t go to church, don’t see the need. I also avoid religious people.

• I rarely hang out with people for lunch, or coffee, too much pressure.

• Read mysteries and thrillers.

• I try (sometimes unsuccessfully) to relate to co-workers.

• I keep my office door closed.

Of course it doesn’t always work out that way. People interrupt and want stuff, so I’m forced to stop what I’m doing. Or I’m asked “why” I did something, and I’m tempted to explain. Or someone (mostly family) wants me to accompany them somewhere, they could probably go alone, and I don’t want to go, but I go anyway. And I feel guilty saying “no.”

LAST THOUGHTS ON DISTRACTIONS

Our cave man ancestors did not have the Internet, or smartphones. They probably didn’t have a lot of free time in any case. And they didn’t live that long.

We have a real problem with social media. A huge problem. While technology is great and has allowed us to get to the top of the food chain as far as our planet is concerned, imagine our cave man ancestor who lived to about 20 years old or so, many of his children did not survive, spend most of the day planning how he would kill off his neighbouring clan and the rest of the day looking actively for food lest he starve. Oh, all the while making sure that he stayed out of the way for the animals who wanted him as dinner.

And then us. We know where our dinner is, no need to look. No neighbours to fight, that’s what I pay the police and government for. And tons of time on our hands, we’re living past 100 now. That’s another 80-plus years of life we have to occupy ourselves with. Social media is our way of simply sitting there and seeing what other people are doing. Not for the sake of helping us survive, but because we have nothing else better to do.

I’m not referring to the digital transformative tools that allow for collaboration. I’m really addressing the tools (which will remain nameless, but you know) that suck our time watching someone else simply talk about themselves. Or about their dogs. And who needs to watch the televised news three times a day? Or in fact catch up on world news as it happens?

Unfortunately for those born in the digital age (say from 1990 onwards), having a smartphone as your nanny means that you may never be able to enjoy sitting alone on a park bench just doing nothing. But try it anyway.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

When you’re working on something, and you know what you’re doing, and don’t need to keep stopping to figure things out, then the work is effortless. There’s a flow.

But when you must keep stopping to figure things out, then even the simplest tasks can be tedious.

This is especially true when working with technology and doing things on a computer. You know what you want. You have a clear picture in your head, but every now and then you must pause and figure out how the computer does it.

BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

Business communication is especially laborious because written communication needs to be focussed, terse, to the point, yet comprehensive and detailed. Not too wordy and not too vague. Somewhere in the middle.

And that’s why, for many things, we have templates. It removes the “staring at the blank page” syndrome that many writers face when trying to put something down. And now we have Artificial Intelligence, like CoPilot and Claude and Gemini and so many others. Even for simple things like writing a comment to something you’ve read or watched online can be automated. Simply tell your AI agent what you’re thinking of saying and it will draft an articulate response. It may vaguely sound like you would have, but you’ll agree it’s better said that you would have.

That’s how Hallmark made its fortune. “Let me tell your loved ones how you feel for you.” So, when you want to send a greeting card for any occasion, just go to your nearest bookstore and browse through the many cards, already written for you, and try to match the sentiment that you’re trying to express.

BACK TO PRACTICE...

In software development most of the work to build tools for your business, the stuff that needs you to do some scaffolding, is already done. I know. I came from the world where even placing a button on an HTML page was tedious let alone writing the code that the button will call when it’s clicked.

And in software development, a developer can be hung up on some of the simple things while trying to get to the most important part of the tool, the actual business logic. You need to know the simple stuff innately but should not spend too much time on all your projects dealing with the scaffolds.

So initially you practice. You do a lot of work learning a framework so that the framework can do most of the heavy lifting for you. The framework allows you to set up a project, get all the user interface elements on the screen, set up databases where you can store your data and then frees you to do the important stuff. Writing the business logic. The fun stuff.

CODING PAGES

I first wrote about coding pages in August 2024. By then, the idea was not fully fleshed out but the gist of the exercise was to eventually end up with a personal script for automating the boring stuff. To get you quickly to the interesting stuff.

And I focussed on a single programming language, Python, and a single framework, Flask. With Python, Flask, Bootstrap and SQLite a technically competent person can do a lot of interesting things on a personal computer to automate their own work.

It’s just like being super competent using Excel VBA which goes beyond Excel macros. The Kenya Revenue Agency uses Excel VBA to automate the submission of tax data and while they don’t do it very well, I’ll give them a few points for trying. Clearly a web-based solution would be even better. I&M Bank uses templates to automate their batch payment system which includes payroll.

The idea behind coding pages was that at some point a developer would be so comfortable with the setup that they could get to the business logic part of the development in less than an hour.

BOREDOM

And then unfortunately boredom sets in. Once you’ve done something a hundred times, and you can do it in your sleep, you no longer feel the need to keep doing it repeatedly. And the next challenge was to script this scaffolding part. By the time you got to the scripting exercise, your Python and Flask expertise was solid. You knew how to set up manual authentication as well as multi-factor authentication using Google’s Authenticator App, Blueprints to modularize business logic, Jinja2 macros to automate the building of repetitive user interface blocks and manage database access manually.

I must say, as an old school developer, I’ve never bothered to learn any of the object relational model frameworks, like SQLAlchemy. I find them too heavy for the small stuff and my SQL knowledge gets in the way. Since I know how to get to the data using plain SQL, I manage the complexity of having SQL statements all over the code by putting them in modules.

Anyhoo, the boredom is a good sign. It’s a sign that it’s time to move on. A muscle has been strengthened, and it needs a new challenge. The focus is now on fine tuning the scripting so that the automation becomes solid.

USE IT OR LOSE IT

And finally, once that muscle is built, if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it. And it’s not only about software development, or drawing, sketching, woodworking, gardening. It’s also about writing, reading, meditating and thinking. At some point, just like I found out with the coding pages exercises, which I still do today, if you do not switch it up, do something slightly different, you’ll get bored, you’ll stop using it, and it will fade. The trick is trying to figure out how to stay interested. More on that perhaps later.

THE BOTTOM OF THE MOUNTAIN

“Because it’s there,” George Mallory’s famous reply when asked why he wanted to climb Mt. Everest.

Every task is viewed from the perspective of the bottom of the mountain. A letter you must write, a performance appraisal for employees, that tax filing you must do. Getting to the start line of that marathon run.

Life is bottom of the mountain stuff.

Wood Allen also famously said “90% of life is showing up.” The problem is getting to the start line, opening the blank document, and writing the first words, getting dressed and making your way to the bottom of the mountain. If life teaches us anything, getting to the start line is 90% of the problem solved.

And most of us never make it there. Mostly out of anxiety of overthinking the target. So focussed on the goal, the end point, and trying extremely hard to work backwards to the start, that we never make it to the start. We do not move from where we are because the discomfort of not knowing how we will move forward will work will play out causes inertia.

ALWAYS SOMETHING BETTER I COULD BE DOING

That’s the other problem. When faced with something you should be doing, we think of more interesting things that we could be doing. Like listening to music. Or watching a movie. Or riding my motorcycle.

It is procrastination but not readily recognizable so. The word better could be replaced with rather, more interesting. When George Mallory replied I’m sure he didn’t stop to wonder why he was actually doing it. Come up with a reason that would satisfy his audience. Come up with a reason that would satisfy himself. The consensus reason. Have a purpose for why I do what I do.

That thing that you should be doing only seems daunting (as Mt. Everest would be to anyone) only because you’re thinking of the plus 12,000 feet to get to the top. Of the sheer climbs, the rope work, the treacherous cold and possibly the statistical possibility of failure proven by many who have not made it to the top.

THE FIRST STEP

Nobody can really see what’s in your mind and as you’re working on something, your critics are bound to ask you many questions as you’re working on something. And sometimes, you don’t even know until you’re somewhere in the middle. Like, “where are you going?” and you say, “I don’t know, just going for a walk.” You’ll figure it out while you’re out there. Some things don’t need too much planning. Too much planning gets in the way of making that first step. Just put on your shoes, grab your keys and step out of the door. Then orient yourself in a direction and move. It’s that simple.

But there are some projects that may take a while longer. Like a longer road trip. Decisions on which route to take. Whether or not you have enough fuel in the car. When to leave and when to return. Or if you’re making a cabinet. Or writing a book. Or an essay. Or doing some gardening. Those may need a little bit more preprocessing, but too much thinking may stall that first step. And for many of those things, even the ones I’ve mentioned, a rough plan is the best plan. Because there’s no such thing as a perfect plan. And in all of those tasks, the result is known, only the path is not fully planned.

FINALLY… ANALYSIS PARALYSIS

The biggest obstacle I find, personally, that fuels the inertia at the start line is not having enough knowledge, not knowing enough, to see the task through. And being afraid of messing up just to start over again. So I research and research until I believe I’ve covered ALL the bases. Thought of all the obstacles. Planned each step and are confident that I’ve thought of all the possible scenarios and mitigated all potential for failure.

Hah!

That process never ends. It ensures that I remain at the bottom of the mountain, looking up at the sheer climb, never seeing the peak and wondering how far up it is and whether I’m standing at the right place for this climb. The overthinking says, don’t even open the computer and start writing because you may need to delete everything you’ve written and start all over again. Don’t go to the start line of the marathon, you may not have covered every aspect of the training and you may not be completely fit enough for this. Don’t write that letter, you don’t have all the facts to present to the group or all the answers.

The truth of the matter is that you never will. And that there’s never a perfect time. And the best that you can do is just take that step, and deal with the lack of knowledge as it comes.

 

 

QUIET - THE SILENCE BETWEEN THOUGHT

It is right on the tip of my tongue. I can sense that it's there, but I cannot express what it is. I cannot even describe it but I'm very aware of its presence.

I found another excellent read and cannot wait to finish it. In many ways very similar to many self-help genre books on discussing how to generate peace, calmness and tranquility in the messy and noisy distracting world. With a million things competing for your attention and the wealth of information out there urging you in all directions so that you do not miss out on anything. "Stillness is the Key" by Ryan Holiday is a good short read that does a good job at describing the method of getting still. Not necessarily quiet, but still.

For the most part, we know most of that stuff. How smartphones, TV and the Internet are sucking all the spare seconds, minutes and hours out of our lives. How we cannot sit in silence for even five minutes without wondering what is going on out there. Even while having a meal, the phone isn't too far away, or the tablet or laptop is playing something while we eat.

When I visited South Korea in 2024 one of the things I noticed is the silence in the public transit system. Everyone is totally focussed and engaged in swiping media on their phones. Even when walking on the streets, as well as crossing them. While the same thing goes on in Toronto, where I lived, it's only after my visit to South Korea that I really saw the effects of the complete absorption by the smartphone.

ALWAYS ON - ALWAYS AVAILABLE

One of the biggest problems with the smartphone is that it combines a relatively simple device (the mobile phone) with a very powerful one (a mobile Internet device). With connectivity provided by the phone's data plan, you're now always available. And everybody knows where you are at all times.

The "notification" system on the phone is an ingenious, though unquestionably, unarguably and decidedly the most fiendish part of the smartphone. The notification system puts the phone in charge of your life and your smartphone becomes the boss - not you. By turning on notifications, you delegate responsibility for your actions to your phone.

And you simply CANNOT IGNORE NOTIFICATIONS. No matter how you try, if the phone buzzes or pings, your curiosity will override your determination to control your time and you'll at least take a peek. And once you take a peek and even if you cannot see the notification but are able to see the sender, your attention will inevitably be drawn to further investigate the contents of the notice.

PRACTICE SILENCE

Mastery of anything requires practice. You don't become proficient at anything overnight. For most things it may take years of doing it over and over and over again.

I ran my first marathon in the mid-80s in Montreal in a finish time of four hours and fifteen minutes (or thereabouts). It was a punishing, gruelling run. I did not know what to expect when I got to the start line and that race taught me valuable lessons about pace and staying within my own competency.

Ten years later I cracked my personal wall, the sub-3 hour run in Ottawa. And that race, though challenging was not as punishing as the first one.

Practicing silence does not mean meditation in a quiet room, but rather spending time without distraction with your own thoughts. It means sitting quietly, on your own, without your phone, without media and possibly without a book to read or write in and just being there.

Practicing silence doesn't ask you to stop thinking and try to empty your mind. It only asks you to sit and observe. Even observe your thoughts and weigh them against the here-and-now. As much as possible discard thoughts about the past and shelve thoughts on the future. Entertain thoughts of the present, of the air, the chair, the sky, the walls, the sounds or lack of sound.

Practicing silence asks you to do your best NOT TO JUDGE what your brain is thinking about, but to observe it.

What will ultimately happen is that you'll learn how to stay in the present. It won't come overnight, it will come with practice. Very slowly. The stressful anticipation of something coming up tomorrow or next week will be controllable and not feature in the now. The disaster you had last year will not terrify, but will be an interesting page in your life. Just that. A page, that's now been turned.

MEDITATION

And ultimately, a form of meditation will take place. Since you're not looking for a distraction from silence of just sitting down, in order to stop your worst thoughts from running away and destroying the quietness, you focus on the breath, on the feeling of the world around you and try as much as possible to stay focussed on what is happening now.

It is a slow process. It is a growing and a learned process. But you do something regularly and frequently and it becomes a habit.

DIGITAL DETOX

I'm well on my way to completing my second month of digital detox. I knew that smartphones and the Internet were distracting. One quick peek into Instagram and I'd be surfacing for air an hour later. Exhausted even though I was just sitting down and scrolling, with one hand.

I just didn't know how bad it was and I'm ready to admit that I was probably addicted to some types of Social Media. Like Instagram, Twitter (before it became "x"), and YouTube. I did not have a minute of boredom in my life. Whenever boredom snuck up, I would distract myself with my phone.

I would also distract myself with Netflix, Hoopla and Kanopy. Movies, documentaries and comic books. While I don't consider Netflix, Hoopla or Kanopy Social Media, they also have a way of sucking you into watching content for hours. They profile your viewing preferences and spam you with shows that you may enjoy, and they're getting better and better at doing this. I used to watch only full-length movies. 90 minutes and I was done. Then the series got my attention and I was hooked. Yes, I did Netflix marathons.

And, of course, my huge excuse for keeping my phone handy with me all the time was for "efficiency." So that I could look things up quickly and not "waste time." I could also justify hours of YouTube viewing by saying that most of the stuff I was watching was tutorials and educational content. Honestly, that may have been 50% of the content. The other 50% was most likely tech reviews, motorcycle videos and track and field events.

DETOXING

Clearly I wasn't the only one worried about the amount of time I was spending online. I borrow a lot of ebooks from the Toronto Public Library and a number of authors discussing the issues around the addiction to Social Media started to hit my radar. Not all the content was reasonable to follow. In some cases, smartphones are now part of the day job. That's how communication is achieved and so some tools, like Zoom or WhatsApp become work tools.

Some of the advice to keep your smartphone away as soon as you get home, the minute you step into the door, did not seem realistic. Employees on-call cannot do that. Indeed, much of the advice, many of the books had an academic feel to them and were mostly practical for white collar workers, specifically in the United States, who had a significant measure of control over their daily schedule.

But I did patch together pieces of advice (like Cal Newport's Digital Minimalism, or Tech Stress by Peper, Harvey and Faas) into a coherent program that seems to work for me.

From August 12, I stopped keeping my smartphone on my bedside table. It's an iPhone so it was on "do-not-disturb" all night. Also, no shiny iPads or other tablets to watch any media before I sleep.

I also uninstalled, from my iPhone, YouTube, Netflix, Hoopla and Instagram. Unfortunately, WhatsApp is a work tool so I just needed to be careful to Archive all the groups that were not useful. But I've kept Spotify, my workouts and my meditation are addicted to instrumental jazz - what can I say?

Then I unsubscribed from all the news and information websites that I had memberships in. Reddit for example, as well as all the online retail shopping websites. I didn't cancel my Amazon account, but I did disable all communication unrelated to purchases. I reduced the volume of information and spam emails from almost 30 daily, to about 5.

Between August 12 and September 12 I did not watch any Netflix movies or television shows.

And I'm still here.

This second month, September 12 to October 12 has been more of the same. The original intent was to slowly return to some amount of Social Media activity, not like before, but something sane. But I haven't determined what that looks like and so another month of no Netflix, no YouTube and no television. I don't miss Instagram and in fact wonder why I spent so much time following my favourite motorcyclists.

DISTRACTION

My use of Social Media was clearly to make sure that there was no downtime at all in my life. That there was no opportunity for boredom and that even when I was tired of working, and needed a break, rather than sit in stony silence or go for a walk, I'd switch on the smartphone and look for something amusing.

The result of that distraction was always more fatigue than when I started the break.

The perceived boredom wasn't really as bad as I'd thought and I'm now used to sitting down for a meal without touching my computer, my iPad or my phone. Just sitting and eating in silence. And if I absolutely have to do something, and I'm not in company, then I read a book, or write (with a pen and paper).

Those moments that I used to distract myself with Social Media have found purpose in better sleep and even when I'm going crazy because I have no energy to do anything, I can always jump on my motorcycle and go for a refreshing ride.

To Think, To Write

I was online thinking about why writing on the computer is so tiring, but writing on my notebook, on paper, with a pen, felt tip, isn't tiring. I can just keep rambling on and on without stopping.

And I've written a lot of words in my handwritten notes.

But I've also typed a lot. Much of that stuff remains in anonymity.

So I decided to find out how most authors write the stuff that they write and here are a few reasons.

Handwriting,

• Allows them to think SLOWLY.
• Forces them to be ACCURATE the first time around (no delete, spellcheck or backspace).
• Keeps them moving FORWARD.
• Rarely stop, because the mind is constantly, always AHEAD of the pen.
• Gives them permission to PAUSE and reflect since the PEN isn't as demanding as a blinking CURSOR.

Typing,

• Because most people say that they have horrible HANDWRITING.
• Because writing by hand is TIRING.
• Because they type FASTER than they can write so the words can keep up with the thinking.
• Allows them to do some minor changes and corrections as they go along, deleting and backspacing and also re-reading.
• PAUSE frequently to allow the fingers to rest, so they re-read frequently.
• The editing process does not require re-writing.

I see myself in both worlds,

I handwrite because I enjoy the feel of the felt tip pen on the paper. I like the feel and look of the words on the page.

I type because I can get the words down onto the page quickly. I can move onto the final draft, like this blog post, without having to think first on paper and then redo the entire presentation on the computer.

In CONCLUSION:

My handwriting stuff will never be redone on the computer, it begins and ends its life on the paper. The purpose and intent of writing on paper is not to think, but to enjoy the writing experience. It's not to "make" anything.

My computer stuff won't ever start as a handwritten piece, to be nurtured on paper to be matured in the computer. The purpose of typing a story, or a piece of code, is to think carefully about the story and to "make" something.

THE CHALLENG OF CODE - AI PERSPECTIVES

Google's search is way better today, with it's AI Mode, than it was years ago. It's grown. You can now have an intelligent conversation about what you're working on and most of the time, more than 75% of the time, get solid answers.

Especially if you're a programmer. Need to figure out how to write a function to grab some data from wherever and display it in a table. 5 seconds. How about adding user interactivity to that table. Maybe 10 seconds more. Hey, forgot a security wrapper, maybe a minute to fix this.

The need to have a full technology department with developers, testers, packagers, cyber experts with all the associated management is taking a 180-degree turn.

Of course you need to know what you want. You need to ask the right questions.

And you also need to know if the answer you got is the right answer.

So there's still a ton of homework to be done.

But the stressful work of trial-and-error, research and gradual knowledge building is becoming less painful. It hasn't gone away, it's just easier to have someone, something, tell you what you should be thinking about.

COMFORTABLE BEING UNCOMFORTABLE

I used to teach computer programming - not computer science. Teach students a programming language and how to solve mainly business related problems using a specific programming language. Automate the hard stuff.

And I'd tell my students that this world of programming is constantly changing. I'd tell them that you need to get used to being comfortable being uncomfortable. For as soon as you've mastered something, it's scheduled for obsolescence. And that a life as a software developer is a life of constantly trying to keep your skills current.

20 years isn't a really long time in a career, but it's a good enough span to say that you've matured in that area.

And 20 years ago, there was no AI to speak of. It wasn't in the horizon, at least for those of us writing desktop applications for Microsoft Windows, or server API's on Linux. After a while, you knew enough of the business logic and the actual coding sometimes became quite tedious.

For myself, mastery of a skill was quite disappointing, even though the work prior to mastery, the constant bouts of failure, were frustrating, finally getting it felt like being at the top of a mountain, and there was nowhere else to go but down. 

But soon enough, another hill presents itself and another climb awaits.

THE LOVE OF CODE vs AI

If you're like me, it is not always about the goal, but the journey can be interesting. The well-trodden path can be delightful but you may also have great experiences when you go off-road and challenge yourself.

It took me a long time in my software developer career to discover that there really isn't a "best" way to write something, but there are "better" ways of getting things done. Much of the time I wasted researching, even when I had a solution that worked, is that I kept thinking that my solution is not good enough. I remember learning C++ and thinking that from this point on, I will do absolutely everything in an object-oriented way. I still don't know if that was a good or wrong thing to do. Computers were getting so fast, that for the problems I was solving, it wasn't a performance decision, more likely a complexity one.

And later in my career, my decision, and fortunately it was mine to make and not my employer's, to learn and focus on Python had more to do with the readability and simplicity of the language. No curly braces, yay! No semi-colon's double-yay! But now dealing with tabs-to-spaces ugh! Does anyone use tabs? Weren't they invented for the typewriter? Why are they still on the keyboard?

Anyhoo, writing software can be an intellectually satisfying, cerebral activity. Part problem solving. Part engineering. Part construction. And it's not always about the result. Behind a pretty interface can be some nasty stuff hanging together by the skin of its teeth, just waiting for a breeze to completely fall apart, like a set of Jenga blocks. You don't want to be the programmer who says, "I don't know what I did, but, hey, it's working!"

KNOWING IS EVERYTHING!

I spend a quite a bit of time, for my business, and also for fun, writing code in Python, using the Flask framework as well as Bootstrap. I like working with Sqlite databases. Sqlite does everything I need for the small tools stitched together to make my business semi-automated. We're mostly paperless (or paper-free) and I've always felt that its time well spent automating a very repetitive task, rather than simply slogging through it because the manual process isn't that difficult.

Like who wants to type up employee payslips each month. Even if it's less than 10 employees, a tiny Python app will do the work in a few seconds each month as well as maintain the database.

AI can write that entire app in a few seconds. With a simple prompt on Google, you can get a fully working application in mere seconds.

Try this prompt:

I'd like a Python/Flask application that uses Bootstrap for a nice user interface for managing my employee payroll information and then allowing me to print out payslips each month. Each employee will have a single payment record per month with about five, maximum seven, deductions each month. The payslip should have all that data.

I typed that in and got a ready application in less than five seconds!

Now, if you know Python / Flask, then it's easy enough to read the code generated and make tweaks to your satisfaction and this is far less work than actually writing the entire thing by yourself, but if you do not know Python / Flask, then the only problem may be making changes later. AI will really screw things up.

Oh, and in the prompt above I forgot to tell Google that I really don't like (hate) SQLAlchemy. I'm very, very old school and are super comfortable writing my own SQL statements and tracking them in a module. 

And so the future of software development will be coming up with the right questions to ask the AI engine.

CAUTION

I don't work that way. I normally know how to start and then I use AI (mostly Google and sometimes the CoPilot agent built into Visual Studio Code) to suggest code snippets. Not whole functions, but methods of getting a piece of work done. 

I remember when I first came across the DataTables Javascript library for presenting tabular data on the page. A piece of cake to implement and I didn't care too much that I didn't have to paginate long tables manually - though I must admit, that's a lot of the fun of data management - the complexity. But I needed to upgrade the DataTables links for the CDN I was using and also try to get rid of JQuery.

I hopped into Google, gave it the <head> and <script> sections of my boilerplate page with the code to be changed and the suggested "fix" came back almost immediately.

I cut-and-pasted it.

It did not work. My headers were ruined and there was no styling.

Back-and-forth we went, Google AI and myself. My first response was, "you broke everything!" and AI Mode came back with an apology and a fix.

It took a moment for me to realize that the fix contained the same links as the breakage, but I tried it and, of course, it did not work.

"You broke it more!" I complained again.

And another fix came forward.

I knew what was wrong, and what needed to be fixed, but I was too lazy and wanted generated code so that I could cut-and-paste it in. All I needed to do was to head over to the DataTables home page, see the template links well posted for Bootstrap v5 and Bob's your uncle!

Which is eventually what I did. The back-and-forth with Google AI Mode was not looking like it would come to an end.

CONCLUSION

Therein lies the problem. AI can generate the code, full apps, full classes and functions or simply code snippets.

But you still should read them, top to bottom, make sure you understand what's been offered, add some of your own character before you commit.

Knowing that it is guaranteed that one day, you will have to poke your head in the nest and pull a couple of branches, or twigs, out making sure you don't spring a leak.

And it may be impossible for AI to clean up as I found out. It may get into a numbing cyclical brain freeze and you're forced to do a complete reboot.