SofSW: The Departure (2/2)

When traveling, there are three ways to pass time; entertainment, gathering input or production. Entertainment is the easiest solution, all I need is a good fictional book or comic and I can almost forget that I am traveling. I consider travel time my own time and I get to decide what I do with it. My music player comes in handy in providing a lot of entertainment. There are about 240 songs from my extensive over six-thousand song collection on the player and I always play them randomly. I never know which song is coming next but I always know that it is a good one as it comes from my own collection. Why would I need more control? When I resort to entertainment and to music specifically, I like to let it affect me and my mood, not vice versa. Upbeat songs make me happy and blues makes me pensive. Sometimes I might even become a little sad because of a beautiful but tragic song, and I thoroughly enjoy the feeling. It is temporary anyway. The next song is going to take it away. I know people who make playlists of songs based on the feelings they inspire. They might have a list of sad songs, which they play when they are already feeling blue. Or maybe they play only happy songs if they are down, I don’t know. I don’t want that kind of control over my feelings. When I’m feeling really depressed I sometimes wish that the next song would be a hero story about a tragic loser who against all odds wins in the end or about a rebel who keeps his head no matter what and is rewarded for it. They give me fighting spirit and if by chance one of those songs happens to play, I can forget about my depression. It is gone and I’m back in the game.

Inflight TV programs and movies are other ways of entertaining myself and I have been known to resort to magazines or menus in the seat pocket in front of me, if I was in the mood and had nothing else to read. Entertainment has its place mostly when I’m tired but not tired enough to sleep, or when the trip is too short for doing anything sensible, or when the environment is too noisy or disruptive for serious thinking. When I decide for entertainment, I go all the way. I use it to forget all my troubles, I deliberately avoid thinking about work. That’s the best advice I can give. Whatever you do, do it properly.

Gathering input means learning. While the value of entertainment comes from the temporary relaxation and escapism, learning is meant to provide longer lasting value. I usually carry one professional or non-fiction popular science book to fulfill my needs to learn. I have noticed that I can read books and not learn anything. I maybe remember reading a particular book, but after half a year or longer I can’t necessarily name any fact I learned from it. In order to become more effective in learning and not just using science books for their entertainment value, I have taken to making notes. Whenever I come to an interesting or thought-provoking passage in the book, I stick a small Post-It note on it so that it sticks just slightly outside of the edge of the page. I keep a small sample of these small Post-It notes on the first page, just under the cover. Whenever I choose a new book to read from my book shelf, I put a bookmark and a collection of stickers on the first page. After I’ve read the book, all I need to do is go through the stickers, copy the passage on my laptop, remove the sticker, place it behind the cover page and move on to the next sticker until I’ve gone through them all. When I get back to my book shelf, I move the stickers to the next non-fiction book. As a matter of fact, in order to collect interesting quotes and sayings, I use the stickers also on fictional books and sometimes even magazines. The file on the computer gets reviewed every now and then and reading the copied passages refreshes my mind. The learning intensifies.

I am a doer. I can entertain myself easily for days and weeks on end. I can go even longer without feeling guilty when I read good scientific books that teach me. But eventually the need to produce becomes overwhelming. If I don’t manage to find the time to write or draw or play guitar, I become extremely irritable and will explode with the slightest hint of resistance or criticism. To outsiders my behavior seems inexplicable. I seem to lash out unprovoked. To me it is a clear symptom of going too long without leaving my mark on the world. It doesn’t have to be anything others see, it doesn’t have to be popular. What it must be is something with lasting value. A drawing on paper is a physical object that can be shown or stored. A poem can be read out or stored on a website for random passersby to find. Playing guitar actually serves my learning purpose more but at least my neighbors get to appreciate the sounds I produce if they want. Writing in any form more lasting than a casual email is enough for me to feel having produced something. When I write a marketing letter from scratch, I definitely feel I’m creating. If the marketing letter happens to convince a customer, the creation has accumulated even more value. The peace of mind is the principal value for me, anything other is just a bonus.

I try to fill my days at home with a healthy mix of these three activity types, but traveling focuses the free-time. There is nothing else you can do. You have to choose one of them. Unless you decide to sleep or talk to your fellow traveler, which I hardly ever do. On this trip I’m going try something different. I’m going to talk to strangers and see if I chance upon pure entertainment or will I learn something of lasting value. A talk might even prompt me to make notes, which would definitely fit into the production category.

I am also going to think deep about software and science in general on this trip.

I was a typical good schoolboy. I did my homework and learned what was taught and did well in exams. I studied mathematics, took the longest possible courses in physics, chemistry and liked natural sciences very much. Maybe the only slight abnormality with me was that I was also very good in languages. This seemed to prompt amazement in my relatives and neighbors, who all seemed to think that boys are good in mathematical subjects (if at all) and girls do better in languages and somebody excelling in both kinds of subjects is exceptional. Later on in the university the gap between the hard mathematical sciences and soft humanistic subjects, like language studies, grew even wider. I know extremely gifted men who could solve the most difficult mathematical problems, but who would be out of their depth when asked to pronounce the word “la fille” on the French class. Mixing it with the culinary term “le filet” is bound to awaken some hilarity in the class.

After high-school I had spent two summers in Switzerland amazed by the strange German-like language they call “Schwyzerdütsch” or “Schweizerdeutsch”. I had studied German and being able to understand what the Swiss people were talking when even German people wouldn’t gave me enough confidence to skip further studies of German language and to get the credit I just did the exam. Having thus saved time from German studies, I took up French. I did a couple of basic courses of it, even though it wasn’t mandatory. That goes to show that I do like languages.

I remember the physics classes in the university of technology. The teacher looked like a hippie, although this was in the early nineties. I found physics fascinating, but little by little it seemed to lose on practical value. In the end I read physics in order to pass the exams and get the credit. I never imagined being able to use the learning in practice. But here we are.

Later on I found computer science and programming, which became a major part of my life.

You’ll have to excuse me now but I have to exit this bus and hurry for my train. On the train I’ll have more time to explain the basics of software engineering.