Non-practice

In the previous months, I held a presentation at a school. One pupil asked me something along the lines of, „Is it hard to succeed?” I didn’t have a prepared answer.

I’ve been thinking about the topic. What would I say now?

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About this:

Alexandru Macedonski: Noaptea de Decemvrie – Érettségi 2024:

„Meka şi Meka conţine o parabolă dictată de inspiraţia “cu limbă de foc” într-o noapte de decembrie, cu ger şi zăpadă, a unui poet sărac şi în dezacord cu lumea guvernată de vanitate şi aur. Scrierea în proză valorifică o legendă orientată în care Mahomet Ben Hassan – Ben Ali lasă cu limbă de moarte fiului său Ali recomandarea de a nu se abate niciodată în viaţă de la calea cea dreaptă. Îl sfătuieşte, totodată, să se ducă, aşa cum trebuie să facă orice credincios musulman, la cetatea sfântă Meka, pentru a putea obţine astfel iertarea păcatelor. Ascultând de îndemnul părintelui său Ali porneşte în pelerinaj la Meka, însoţit de un mare convoi de cămile şi servitori, cu multe provizii de drum, hotărât să străbată pustiul arab pe drumul cel drept. În acelaşi timp, spre aceeaşi ţintă porneşte şi Pocitan-Ben-Pehlivan, un cerşetor respingător la înfăţişare. Deşi este invitat de Ali să meargă în fastnosul său convoi, Pocitan refuză, alegând, spre a ajunge la Meka, nişte căi ocolite dar mai uşor de străbătut. Ali îşi continuă însă drumul prin pustiu; dar marile dificultăţi ale călătoriei nu pot fi învinse şi convoiul piere, oamenii şi cămilele murind rând pe rând, până când emirul, sleit de puteri şi rămas singur, moare şi el, înainte de a-şi fi putut vedea visul cu ochii, căci imaginea Mekăi rămâne o iluzie înşelătoare ca fata morgana. În schimb, hidosul Pocitan-Ben-Pehlivan ajunge la cetatea sfântă.”

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„Meka and Meka” contains a parable inspired by a „tongue of fire” revelation during a snowy, freezing December night, dictated to a poor poet at odds with a world governed by vanity and gold. This prose work draws on an Eastern legend in which Mahomet Ben Hassan – Ben Ali, on his deathbed, urges his son Ali never to stray from the path of righteousness. He also advises him to go—just as any faithful Muslim should—to the holy city of Mecca, in order to obtain forgiveness for his sins.

Obeying his father’s advice, Ali sets out on a pilgrimage to Mecca, accompanied by a large convoy of camels and servants, with plenty of provisions, determined to cross the Arabian desert on the straight path. At the same time, heading toward the same goal is Pocitan-Ben-Pehlivan, a beggar repulsive in appearance. Although invited by Ali to join his luxurious convoy, Pocitan declines, choosing instead to reach Mecca via winding but easier routes.

Ali continues his journey through the desert, but the great hardships of the journey prove insurmountable. The convoy perishes—camels and people dying one by one—until finally, the exhausted emir, left alone, also dies before ever seeing his dream fulfilled, for the image of Mecca remains an illusory mirage like a fata morgana. By contrast, the hideous Pocitan-Ben-Pehlivan reaches the holy city.

It makes me think – who has better values? The one that succeeds with small concessions, or the one who dies for his principles (even though they might not be the right ones?).

This is more unclear than it appears.

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I see this happening quite often. People wait until the last moment to inform me that a task is a priority and needs urgent attention.

If you know for a fact that a task is both urgent and important, why not inform me long before the deadline?

The thing is, people come close to the deadline and tell me, „Now it’s urgent!”.

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Whenever people give specifications of what kind of website they want, the requirement is straightforward.

„I want a tiny, little, small website!”

The thing is, the end result is almost ever like this.

„Oh, but I also need this. Can we move things a bit? Can we make it more «lively»?” etc.

When you are billing for a project, take into account that the initial specifications and the end result might differ.

I tend to bill web development projects by the hour, not by the project, based on the fact that there tends to be a difference between „initial specifications” and „end result”.

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Some teachers say things like „I ban the use of ChatGPT for doing lessons/assignments.”.

It might look counterintuitive – why do so? ChatGPT is here to stay, it’s a tool; why not use it, if it’s available?

The thing is, by „manually” doing an assignment, you get some skills and habits. If you write a piece of text, some connections form in your mind. If you do some manual research, you learn some things on how to search. If you manually draw conclusions, you learn how to think logically.

I tend to use ChatGPT for getting ideas, but I also refine results using my judgment.

And still do some things „by hand”.

There are chess tournaments that are between human-only players.

There are chess tournaments that are between computers only.

There are chess tournaments that are between computers, but with human supervision.

There are no chess tournaments between computers and humans. It’s simply not a topic anymore.

And the current most popular chess tournaments are between human-only players.

We know that computers are better than humans at chess. But we want to see humans competing.

And for learning chess, humans have to learn by repeating things.

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As you buy more and more cups of ice cream, the price decreases.

So, for example, one cup of ice cream is 12 lei, if you buy another one, it’s 10 lei, and the third one is either 10 lei, again, or 8 lei.

The thing is, just by looking at the above pricing, it makes sense to buy more and more cups.

But we know from psychology that we tend to derive less and less pleasure from something.

So, the first cup of ice cream brings you lots of joy, the second one a lesser amount of joy, while the third one – lesser, even.

There’s a tendency to just look at the pricing („But it’s so cheap to buy the third cup!”), instead of also taking into account personal satisfaction („You’ll likely enjoy the third cup not-so-much”).

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„The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” (a non-Chinese proverb)

Sometimes, there is a task to do. It’s not mandatory to do it that day. The following day, still not mandatory, but the task becomes a bit more urgent.

This goes on for a few days. 5 days pass, no improvement.

There are two ways to look at this situation:

• I had to do the task five days ago. Since it’s not that important, it can wait further.
• I waited for 5 days to do the task. Now it’s URGENT and IMPORTANT.

I do this, I see others doing this.

Two ways of looking at the same situation.

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