Re: [frogs] Frog's Lament

[David Kastrup]

Francisco Vila <address@hidden> writes:

> 2009/11/27 David Kastrup <address@hidden>:
>> I have what amounts to severe attention disorder syndrome.  I can't
>> focus on easy tasks.  I can only work effectively on hard or
>> impossible things, mostly until 95% are done.  When learning or
>> practicing an instrument, the successful way for me was to take on
>> things that were 10 times my level.  I could work on those.  And
>> after a lot of time, they were just 2 times my level, and I could
>> take on new challenges because I was not progressing any more.
>
> This regime may be good for your well-being and mind health, but do
> you think seriously it is good for a collaborative effort like
> LilyPond?  From your literal words, are you aware that it may cause
> unresolved bugs that nobody except you could fix?

Mastery means finding the most straightforward solution, not the hardest
one.  Sometimes that involves encapsulating a small piece of
_inherently_ complex functionality, in order to make the rest of the
task easier.

For example, take scheme continuations: they are universal enough that
you can do almost any control structure with them.  But if you use them,
it is almost always prudent to first _design_ a much less universal
control structure that one can actually understand more intuitively, and
use _that_ for implementing your problem.

I don't play complex pieces beyond the edge of my mastery in public.  I
play those that have become accessible to me.  Even if they only became
accessible in the course of spending time and effort failing on harder
ones.

-- 
David Kastrup