Programming language for beginners

`5:28:37`

You also have to solve a problem. You're not just communicating a solution. You have to actually figure out what are you trying to say, but even writing has that. Half the time when I start writing a blog post, I don't know exactly what arguments I'm gonna use. They develop as part of the writing process. And that's how writing software happens too. You know roughly the kind of problem you're trying to solve. You don't know exactly how you're gonna solve it. And as you start typing, the solution emerges. — And actually, as far as I understand, you and Jason are working on a new book. It's in the early days of that kind of topic. I think he said, he tweeted that it's gonna be titled something like, we don't know what we're doing upfront, something like that. That kind of topic. And you figure out along the way. — That's a big part of it. Trying to give more people the permission to trust your own instincts and their own gut and realizing that developing that supercomputer in your stomach is actually the work of a career.

`5:29:38`

And that you should not discard those feelings in preference to over comp... or not even complicated, to analytics, to intellectualism. Very often when we look at the big decisions we've had to make, they've come from the gut where you cannot fully articulate like, why do I think this is the right thing? Well, because I've been in this business for 20 years and I've seen a bunch of things and I've talked to a bunch of people, and that is percolating into this being the right answer. A lot of people are very skeptical about that in business or unable to trust it because it feels like they can't rationalize. Why are we doing something? Well, because I feel like it, damn it. That's a great privilege of being a bootstrapped independent founder who don't owe their business to someone else and doesn't have to produce a return. Because I feel like a lot of the really creeps in when you're trying to rationalize to other people why you do the things you do and why you take the decisions that you do. If you don't have anyone to answer to, you are free to follow your gut.

`5:30:39`

And that's hell of enjoyable way to work. And it's also in very often the correct way to work. Your gut knows a lot, like you can't articulate it, but it's spot on more times than not. — Yeah, having to make a plan can be a paralyzing thing. I've often, I mean, I suppose there's different kinds of brains. And first of all, I can't wait to read that book if it materializes. I often feel like in the more interesting things I do in my life, I really don't know what I'm doing up upfront. And I think there's a lot of people around me that care for me that really want me to know what I'm doing. They're like, what's the plan? Why are you doing this crazy thing? And if I had to wait until I have a plan, I'm not gonna do it. They have different brains on this kind of stuff. Some people really are planners and it maybe energizes them. I think most creative pursuits, most really interesting, most novel pursuits are like,

`5:31:41`

you kind of have to just take the leap and then just figure out as you go. — My favorite essay in "Rework" is the last one, and it's entitled, Inspiration is Perishable. And I think that captures a lot of it, that if you take the time to do a detailed plan, you may very well have lost the inspiration by the time you're done. If you follow the inspiration in that moment and trust your gut, trust your own competence, that you will figure it out, you're gonna get so much more back. You're gonna go on the adventure you otherwise wouldn't have. Whether that's just a business decisions or life decision, you have to seize that inspiration. There's a great set of children's books written by this Japanese author about chasing an idea and trying to get a hold of it, and it's beautifully illustrated as an idea something that's floating around as something you have to catch and latch onto. That I really feel captures this notion that inspiration is perishable, it'll disappear.

`5:32:42`

If you just put it back on the shelf and say like, well, I gotta be diligent about this. I gotta line up a plan. You may run out and then there's no steam to keep going. — I have to ask about open source. What does it take to run a successful open source project? You've spoken about that. It's a misconception that open source is democratic. It's actually meritocratic. That's a beautiful way to put it. So there's often is a kind of also a benevolent dictator at the top often. So can you just speak to that? Having run successful open source projects yourself and being a benevolent dictator yourself. — Which is gonna be a bit of a biased piece of evidence here, but I... — But why monarchy is best. — It's great. We should definitely have dictators and they should control everything, especially when the dictator is me. Now, well I think I learned very early on that a quick way to burn out in open source