reflections

Saturday morning started with my computer plugged on and surrounded by a plethora of new faces. We were there to write some code, but unlike most times, in this ocation we didn’t program in order to finish a project, we were coding to focus in coding itself.

Rules were simple: pair up, try to solve “Conway’s game of life” with the constraints given (not using for-loops for example), don’t finish (not an actual rule, but an extremely likely scenario), all sessions end with some feedback, and rinse and repeat. Oh, I forgot something, when time is up, you erase your code. No ceremony, no pushing, no saving in a file. Just like Buddhist monks make intricate and beautiful mandalas in the sand, just to wipe them clean later. Don’t get attached.

I found the concept behind the code retreat really interesting, for once the product -or the end game- is not the star of the show, but the activity itself (seems to be Ying to Hackathon’s Yang). The seemingly impossible mission of finishing the whole thing in one go, and the fact that all remains of previous written code gets whipped in each round, might seem to be a nightmare to most, an anxiety pill, just like The Myth of Sisyphus, the man condemned by the gods to roll a giant rock up a hill, only to have it sent back when reaching the summit, and start all over again. Well, that was not the case, it was actually quite liberating.

The realization that you aren’t going to finish anyway, helps you to focus on how will you solve this problem with your partner, the lack of remaining code forces you to constantly rethink ways of solving the matter at hand without relying on past solutions or baggage (whether it was good or not). The fact that the groups always changed, promoted constant negotiation, discussion of approaches, and new understandings of the matter (are you focusing on the cell or are you focusing on the grid?).

It was a great experience, and would surely do it again. I learned to not always get so attached to one previous solution I had to a problem, to let go, look at the same problem from different angles, and come with new solutions. I think I could do this a hundred more times, always the “Conway’s Game of life”, and most likely my solutions will continue to evolve, change, and adapt.

The focus on the journey reminded me of the poem “Ithaka” by Constantino Cavafy, if you haven’t read it, and you have read so far, don’t miss out on it.

Ithaka

by C. Cavafy

As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you’re seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you’re destined for.
But don’t hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you’re old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn’t have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

original here