Chayannito se levantó una mañana y comenzó a decirse a si mismo frases como “es todo lo mismo; es la misma porquería, pero con más ganas”, “eso es Salsa!! bien!!”, o “toda tu vida bailando salsa y no mejoraste ni un poquito!!”, síntomas claros de lo que en jerga psicoterapéutica se denomina síndrome “Gato Gaudio” (cuyas manifestaciones pueden observarse aquí, aquí y aquí.)

Parece ser que a nuestro bailarín se le ha dado por el tango (dios mio…). Chayannito ya está metido en el ambiente y aprovechamos este post para informar que estaremos presentando videos de sus performances en este nuevo arte (tenemos que esperar que el señor aprenda…)

He grows in wisdom…He is brilliant…He learns to do without and is prepared to make great sacrifices…enormous sacrifices… if I may say…His energy is tremendous… In other words he is prepared for the struggle…and with honesty he shall fight it…

A true musician must subordinate himself his Art; …he must place himself above human suffering; …he must draw courage from within…and only from within.

Erik Satie

Just as other information should be available to those who want to learn and understand, program source code is the only means for programmers to learn the art from their predecessors. It would be unthinkable for playwrights not to allow other playwrights to read their plays, but only be present at theater performances where they would be barred even from taking notes. Likewise, any good author is well read, as every child who learns to write will read hundreds of times more than it writes. Programmers, however, are expected to invent the alphabet and learn to write long novels all on their own. Programming cannot grow and learn unless the next generation of programmers have access to the knowledge and information gathered by other programmers before them.

Creation: A Culture of Gift

Mob Software: The Erotic Life of Code

Son tres ensayos que me parecieron interesantísimos que aparecen en el sitio web de Richard Gabriel

Why is programming fun? What delights may its practioner expect as his reward? First is the sheer joy of making things. As the child delights in his mud pie, so the adult enjoys building things, especially things of his own design. I think this delight must be an image of God’s delight in making things, a delight shown in the distinctness and newness of each leaf and each snowflake.

Second is the pleasure of making things that are useful to other people. Deep within, we want others to use our work and to find it helpful. In this respect the programming system is not essentially different from the child’s first clay pencil holder “for Daddy’s office.”

Third is the fascination of fashioning complex puzzle-like objects of interlocking moving parts and watching them work in subtle cycles, playing out the consequences of principles built in from the beginning. The programmed computer has all the fascination of the pinball machine or the jukebox mechanism, carried to the ultimate. Fourth is the joy of always learning, which springs from the nonrepeating nature of the task. In one way or another the problem is ever new, and its solver learns something: sometimes practical, sometimes theoretical, and sometimes both.

Finally, there is the delight of working in such a tractable medium. The programmer, like the poet, works only slightly removed from pure thought-stuff. He builds his castles in the air, from air, creating by exertion of the imagination. Few media of creation are so flexible, so easy to polish and rework, so readily capable of realizing grand conceptual structures. (…)

Yet the program construct, unlike the poet’s words, is real in the sense that it moves and works, producing visible outputs separately from the construct itself. It prints results, draws pictures, produces sounds, moves arms. The magic of myth and legend has come true in our time. One types the correct incantation on a keyboard, and a display screen comes to life, showing things that never were nor could be.

Programming then is fun because it gratifies creative longings built deep within us and delights sensibilities we have in common with all men.

Y los chicos:

En los siguientes videos habla acerca de la música clásica, de la educación y de una nueva concepción del hombre y las relaciones humanas.

Música clásica con los ojos abiertos:

El arte de la posibilidad (en inglés, sin subtítulos):

http://www.poptech.org/popcasts/?viewcastid=211

Cada uno puede alcanzar estados de flujo de diferentes maneras, según sus propias capacidades. La paradoja es que no es posible alcanzar estos estados estando pasivo, por ejemplo, mirando televisión, como marca el psicólogo que expone; sino que requiere esfuerzo, capacidad, desafíos y el desarrollo de habilidades, todo a la vez.