Little Widgets

We talked before about simple models and Spherical Cows. Using simple models to explain a complex whole came up again recently. I started reading a book called ‘First You Write a Sentence’ by Joe Moran, and on the first page the author refers to sentences as little widgets. Sentences are my core output, the little widgets I make in my workshop of words. Thats neat, the idea of a sentence as the simplest working thing you can make, and then by fitting them together build something complex and wonderful.

Spherical Cows

When you study physics there is a chance that at some point you will be told a version of the Spherical Cow joke. Here is a version I sort of remember being told at university: There once was a farmer and a theoretical physicist, and they were friends from childhood who kept up a regular correspondence, writing back and forth to one another. One year the farmer was having trouble with the quality of the milk from his heard.

Getting to Know a Programming Language

Learning a new programming language is an interesting process - over time you start to see patterns in the similarities and differences between the new language and ones you have already studied. I say studied because a programming language is an artifact that you can walk around, look at from different angles and admire. Usually, yes, you are learning the new language to achieve an end, but sometimes studying a programming language can be the point in and of itself.