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Years ago, when
I was trying to write science fiction, I used to wonder where the
''real" authors got their ideas. I struggled with ideas; every time I
thought of something that I could possibly work into a story, I would
write it down on an index card (there were no personal computers then,
and especially, there were no PDAs) and file it carefully away. Nothing
ever came of these because I was so busy searching for and writing down
these ideas that I never wrote the stories. This is a good thing,
because the "ideas" were tired clich�s, and the stories that would have
been written would not have been worth reading. |
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"Real" science
fiction authors are constantly asked, "Where do you get your ideas?" In
fact, this is the most asked question. One author used to reply "I steal
them." And this is far more profound than you might think, because it's
what we all do. No idea is new; no idea occurs in a vacuum, like
hydrogen atoms in the steady-state cosmology; no idea is original. All
ideas grow out of the things that influence us, and the things that
influence us are ideas. "New" ideas are simply little twists of concepts
that already exist. By being aware of what is going on around you, by
focusing on your everyday routine, you come to realize, in a
non-intellectual way, that there are needs to be filled, and indeed, a
neverending stream of needs. Some of these needs may be yours, which you
can fulfill by writing a small program in Python to take care of, as we
did earlier with the
fixhash.py
program; some of these needs may be others', in which case you can
analyze the problem and build tools in Python to provide a solution.
Some needs may be a company's needs, in which case Python might provide
the perfect prototyping language, or the perfect glue language, or
sometimes even the perfect production language. But in all cases, when
you write programs, you soon come to understand that every line in your
programs has been written, at one time or another, by someone else,
albeit to serve different needs. You steal every line and change every
line. |
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In a sense, all
the lines and words and ideas that make up programs are reused,
recycled, and reinvigorated constantly. It is a process that has been
going on for years and that promises to continue into the foreseeable
future. Carl Sagan said, "We are all made of star-stuff." The atoms that
make us up originated in the incandescent furnaces of novae�exploded
stars that fling these atoms outward to the universe. Eventually,
planetary systems form from the stellar detritus; eventually, life;
eventually, us. |
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Where does this
get you? First you practice without understanding; then, you practice
with the attitude, the knowledge, that if you persevere, you will "get
it"; finally, you understand that practice itself is understanding
enough. I mean, here is the point: you learn so much through your
practice, and you practice so much that you gain the kind of attitude
and understanding that sinks below your intellectual mind. Eat the
strawberry without thinking about exactly what you are going to do with
the fork, the plate, the leftover leaves. Ride the bicycle without
wondering how you stay upright. As shown in |
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