W
Walter Roberson
:Walter> And if no-one answers it, then we save our sanity by just
:Walter> letting it go unanswered.
:Maybe you can afford that luxury in other areas, but there's a lot of
:cargo-culted junk in the semi-answers all over the web, and everyone
:seems to consider themselves an expert after reading some random web
:tutorial.
Randal, I understand what you mean, because I've lived through
much the same experience -- and most times that I felt "in control", I'd
end up pushing into yet another technical area until I was
comfortably overwhelmed again.
About two months ago, I finally listened to what I was saying to myself
and bitching about to others: computers had taken over my life, and my
first reaction to nearly -everything- was to go online, do email, read
and post, do a quick google search. From about 2 minutes after I woke
up until about 2 minutes before I fell asleep at night. So I did something
about it: I took 10 (calendar) days vacation, and turned off my computer
and went "cold turkey" without computers for the entire time. I moped,
I slept, I got sick of myself, felt depressed -- but eventually I
got to the point where I could live with myself, without needing to
turn to the computer all the time, and without always feeling like
I was responsible for all the problems that happened because I wasn't
there to take head them off.
:So, what happens in the Perl community is that the absence
f good answers from experts gets filled up with crap answers from
:answerer-wannabes. Eeek. And this contributes to the burnout from
:the experts.
Randal, you've done an amazing amount for the Perl community, and you
clearly don't want to see your efforts go to waste. But what I "hear"
in what you write is that, at least at this time, your work on Perl is
draining you rather than sustaining you. If you don't want to end up
the way I ended up, in a confused and emotionally draining stupour for
10+ months, nearly unable to leave the house, unable to cook a simple
meal for myself, barely able to use a bottle opener at times, despondant
about how badly I felt and how little I could do for myself -- if you
don't want to end up like that, then LEARN TO LET GO.
Cargo-culted perl sites grow up? Hard as it may be: let them grow.
Some of them will "grow up" and become important and useful; and some
of them will poison the style of people: let their styles be poisoned.
You, Randal, are not *personally* responsible for helping each and
every person achieve their maximum potential in Perl. Perl has gotten
too big: your self-appointed task is akin to trying to educate every
single web page creator about bad HTML, or akin to trying to educate
every PC user about all the ways that MS Windows is broken.
Relinquishing your life's work to the barbarian masses is darn near
heart-breaking -- but if you don't learn how to loosen your grip, then
it's going to break you.
Randal, on the whole, I would prefer that instead of answering this
posting, that you would turn off your computer, and go take a walk
in the park, take some old bread and feed the birds along the way.
Sit on a bench and watch some children play. And not "tomorrow, the day
after, real soon now": people like you and I always find another
"emergency" to deal with but never seem to find the time to "just be".
:Walter> letting it go unanswered.
:Maybe you can afford that luxury in other areas, but there's a lot of
:cargo-culted junk in the semi-answers all over the web, and everyone
:seems to consider themselves an expert after reading some random web
:tutorial.
Randal, I understand what you mean, because I've lived through
much the same experience -- and most times that I felt "in control", I'd
end up pushing into yet another technical area until I was
comfortably overwhelmed again.
About two months ago, I finally listened to what I was saying to myself
and bitching about to others: computers had taken over my life, and my
first reaction to nearly -everything- was to go online, do email, read
and post, do a quick google search. From about 2 minutes after I woke
up until about 2 minutes before I fell asleep at night. So I did something
about it: I took 10 (calendar) days vacation, and turned off my computer
and went "cold turkey" without computers for the entire time. I moped,
I slept, I got sick of myself, felt depressed -- but eventually I
got to the point where I could live with myself, without needing to
turn to the computer all the time, and without always feeling like
I was responsible for all the problems that happened because I wasn't
there to take head them off.
:So, what happens in the Perl community is that the absence
f good answers from experts gets filled up with crap answers from:answerer-wannabes. Eeek. And this contributes to the burnout from
:the experts.
Randal, you've done an amazing amount for the Perl community, and you
clearly don't want to see your efforts go to waste. But what I "hear"
in what you write is that, at least at this time, your work on Perl is
draining you rather than sustaining you. If you don't want to end up
the way I ended up, in a confused and emotionally draining stupour for
10+ months, nearly unable to leave the house, unable to cook a simple
meal for myself, barely able to use a bottle opener at times, despondant
about how badly I felt and how little I could do for myself -- if you
don't want to end up like that, then LEARN TO LET GO.
Cargo-culted perl sites grow up? Hard as it may be: let them grow.
Some of them will "grow up" and become important and useful; and some
of them will poison the style of people: let their styles be poisoned.
You, Randal, are not *personally* responsible for helping each and
every person achieve their maximum potential in Perl. Perl has gotten
too big: your self-appointed task is akin to trying to educate every
single web page creator about bad HTML, or akin to trying to educate
every PC user about all the ways that MS Windows is broken.
Relinquishing your life's work to the barbarian masses is darn near
heart-breaking -- but if you don't learn how to loosen your grip, then
it's going to break you.
Randal, on the whole, I would prefer that instead of answering this
posting, that you would turn off your computer, and go take a walk
in the park, take some old bread and feed the birds along the way.
Sit on a bench and watch some children play. And not "tomorrow, the day
after, real soon now": people like you and I always find another
"emergency" to deal with but never seem to find the time to "just be".