Investigative, Artistic, Social

Let the machine talk.

Obtain feedback from people.

Ok. I have been thinking a lot. No surprise there. As a coder, my preference style changes the game. All the rules made for the standard programmer needs translation. To move closer to my dream, the rules are played differently.

I can do any sort of software development I am interested in. Sometimes that means a little investigative work to match technical manifesto with emotional preference.

I have been cleaning up house for the last four to five months. Every iteration or revision to my techniques, cleans up the major highways to allow the water to flow over. Energy springing into action. More of the muck and debris are swept away. The more it all flows, the finer the process and the greater confidence I have in my own actions.

When I learned about being proactive with the problem space, with me creating my own map of the environment, this initiated a rapid inner-dialogue of why creating problem space works.

Writing is about creating. Coding works with problem shaping. Using the "beginning" mentality is about how I view each step. All I care about is walking through the same door countless times. What is the first thing I see? What do I want to see? These questions coupled with endless repeating cycles are the building blocks of momentum in the continuum of my time. If everything is a fresh moment, then there is a uniform expectation of how my energy is spent. No matter what happens all I care about is how I approach today.

My actions must be guided by value and principal. My intuition works as the primary driver. This means more experiences are training and strengthening my intuition. Tuning everything to be in-tuned. Which leads to greater steps.

Today I coded. I opened a new source file in my project. I asked myself "what problem do I want to solve?" I visualized a new beginning and the problem appearing from the horizon. In my mind's eye, I validated if seeing the image of the problem popping up like daises gets me all energized. If the beginning feels fresh, then the problem space matches to how I want to work on my project.

This is both artistic and social. 

Creating your own problem space is most certainly guided by artistic thought rather than one based on reality. With my investigative work, I can match my artistic rendition to accurately reflect what is actually occurring. We all press one button to start the microwave, but we don't cause all the mechanisms to work. Someone created the "problem" of hitting the button to represent starting the heat in the microwave. Same concept applies to me. My work is to simplify problems while also accurately reflect reality in order to solve them.

Why walk when you can ride a bicycle? Or maybe you prefer walking because a breakfast sandwich or the library is around the corner. Walking to places may be more intuitive in your situation. Or maybe the bicycle is smarter and faster in saving time. Which one? A choice for the problem space. The way you shape the problem, does indeed determine how you want to solve it.

This breaks some social expectations because some of my problem spaces may be unconventional. However, as long as it reads easily in the code, can fit open standards and I feel happy with it, then that is all that matters. I have taken time in my life to stop allowing people to have the final say on how I feel about things. Yeah, I may be nice to them, but that is because its too hard to explain to them my reasoning. They may have some good points to consider, but how do I express my viewpoint without it all collapsing in communication? I care a lot about people and that is my social interest, but learning to set my own boundaries frees me up. This means that creating software in my own way is setting up one of those boundaries.

My artistic side this whole time wanted to be free, but my social interest conflicted. How do you follow good practices while being yourself? Good question. That question is very much answered by experience. One that years ago I was desperate and could not understand. Keeping my morals and being who I am did not conflict. If I follow my values, then everything else is about expression. Expressing code in my way can still follow open protocols yet be artistic as well.

Now. There is a huge problem with this approach. Without good grounding, my artistic side can explode and leave reality like a rocket heading to the next galaxy. Knowing myself, I have reflected about this a lot. When my thoughts take off, there are many times I find myself lost, and it takes a huge emotional toll to think practically while being artistically driven.

This is where the computer is absolutely helpful.

Offload the burden to the computer.

Let's say I am creating a simulation or game. My ideas starting painting the earth and brushing the sky. How do I know where I stand? Who can tell me my status or give me a detailed report? 

The computer of course.

When programming, the compiler let's you know when you write incorrect syntax. The Rust compiler even manages memory for you and will compile an error when you don't follow lifetimes. Saving the developer from memory leaks.

Reports will become a constant tool for me. I need to have logging mechanism to give me objective reports of what is happening.

How fast is my software running? 

Or does the data of my simulation match those to the expected data sets? 

If the simulation starts running and simulated ice is forming in hot environments, then there is something that needs fixing. I cannot create simulations without knowing what laws to follow. If my problem spaces do interact and accurately represent those laws, then the computer should report or show those laws behaving as expected. Which means test driven development may be in my future learning quests. However. One thing at a time. Just knowing that testing and logging is vital to stay grounded is half of the battle. The rest is learning the "how".

The next grounding mechanism I want to mention is people. 

If my software is helpful or the impact resonates, then this will let me know if my problem space is connecting with reality. The feedback from people will help inform my next steps, or how to tweak the mechanisms or ideas I have built.