Personal essays
When do you know enough
Shiny things
Sunday Maggie joined me in Amsterdam and we took a train to Haarlem to meet a friend and his family for lunch.
Not the “A Train” - that’s Harlem not Haarlem.
On our walk back towards the train station after lunch my friend and I discussed things we are thinking of working on next.
I told him I’m trying to finish my current book and other pending projects so my desk is clear in June for whatever Apple might announce at their conference.
He nodded and said that that’s kind of been my brand. To learn about the latest from Apple and find a way to write about it and explain it in accessible ways.
He writes wonderful books that are rooted in years of experience with a topic. Neither approach is better, each fits who we are.
I love learning new things and I love passing them on.
Enough
Earlier in the week I had taught two workshops on technology Apple released last year. One day was on Swift Macros and the other culminated in Observables and SwiftData.
The details don’t matter.
The point is that these were technologies that Apple previewed in June and released in September. Here we are in March and I’ve been teaching workshops on the topics for a while, released a book on one of them and am almost finished with a book on the other.
During the lunch break of one of the workshops I was chatting with two of the attendees.
I’m very age conscious at conferences. I am quite a bit older than most attendees. For many I am double their age and/or the same age as their parents.
One said that he would never guessed it - which was kind.
But he also said that he was very reassured by my workshop.
He has an older colleague who refuses to learn new things. The programming language and techniques he learned twenty years ago were good enough then and he considered them to be good enough now.
This worried my student. He worried about the day that he would decide he had learned enough and would refuse to learn more. His collegue was so forceful that he assumed he would become like that too.
It was a relief for him to see an old guy (me) who continues to learn new things.
Science
While in Haarlem, Maggie and I went to the Teylor museum. It was an eclectic mix of everything from fossils and geodes, to paintings, to optical illusions, to… it was eclectic.
One of my favorite part was the rooms that showed scientific instruments from the past.
In order to make progress in science, you have to be able to observe or measure various things particular to your field of interest.
When this older programmer decides that his tools never need updating, he’s decided not to see or struggle with new sorts of problems that his aging tools can’t address.
I’m torn when it comes to gadgets. I love a new kitchen gadget as much as the next person. But then I looked up to find my kitchen filled with single-use gadgets that really didn’t justify their place in a drawer or on the counter.
I have more mortar and pestles than I know what to do with and still I’m not talking about those. I’m talking about a garlic press or a nutmeg grinder.
For the most part I use a couple of really sharp, well-maintained knives and I use my hands.
When I watch a talented chef cut, cook, and arrange food I’m astounded by the efficient movements of their hands.
When I watch a baker handle dough, I’m likely to comment on the the soft but sure motion of their hand.
Your hands are the most important tool you use in the kitchen.
But if I didn’t buy a sous vide, pressure cooker, and countertop oven there would be food that I couldn’t make. And without my spiral mixer there would be a lot of food that I wouldn’t make.
So my kitchen is a combination of specialty tools and essential tools that I take time to sharpen now and then.
Sharpening the Saw
People often see a very sharp kitchen knife and voice a concern about how dangerous it is.
It is.
Working in a kitchen around heat and knives is a risky thing.
But working with a knife that isn’t sharp is much more dangerous.
We apply more force and have less control. Instead of the knife gliding through the item we’re cutting, it isn’t steady in our hand as we force the blade through.
A sharp knife can do more and it’s much safer to use.
The final habit in the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is “Sharpening the Saw”.
It is more focused on the lack of productivity that results from tools that aren’t well-maintained.
When I say a sharp knife can “do more” I mean it in two ways. There are tasks that can’t be done with a dull knife and I can perform more of any task with a sharp knife than a dull one.
There are the physical tools I use in my work - my Mac and iPhone. I use recent hardware and I keep the operating system up to date.
But the most important tool in my work is my mind.
I can’t imagine not wanting to learn new things.
I can’t imagine saying that I know enough.
Our collective understanding of the world keeps changing. Perhaps I will get to a point where I want to freeze my perspective at a happier time.
Perhaps the old man shouting at kids to get off his lawn doesn’t have the latest tools to see that those aren’t kids and that’s not his lawn.
Essay from Dim Sum Thinking Newsletter 208. Read the rest of the Newsletter or subscribe