[Edu-sig] Question ?

[Gregor Lingl]

Terry Hancock schrieb:

>On Saturday 17 April 2004 08:32 am, Gregor Lingl wrote:
>  
>
>>Jason Cunliffe schrieb:
>>    
>>
>>>What is the opposite of programming?
>>>      
>>>
>>Did you think of *the one* opposite?
>>I think there are many.
>>The first on I thought of was: making love.
>>Gregor
>>    
>>
>
>How is that an opposite? 
>
I my opinion (and in my experience) programming
has much to do with exerting power, i. e. making
something else (a machine) do exactly what I
want it to do.
I define exactly the result, I (and only I) chose the means to
achieve the results, etc. . Even the process of problem solving
(in the context of programming ) has some similarities
to a fight between me and some entity (the problem),
which may show more or less resitance to my
attempts to solve it.

In contrast making love is a process of communication
between (at least ;-) , as programmers we are used to
describe things exactly) two individuals in a way far from
exerting power or force or control ...

It has something to do with letting things come,
letting things be ...hear and feel what your partner
wants, feels, ... So the joy I feel is *essentially*
the joy *we* feel and comes from radically different
sources compared to "the joy in the process of
programming"

>They're both creative acts 
>involving the combination of vast code databases to create 
>a new and unique creation. 
>
Did you think of creating a new human beeing? If so this is
only a small element of my concept of "making love"

> Not to mention much joy in
>the process.
>
>  
>
Of course also for me there are a lot of other
joyful activities, which I consider opposite
to programming, as for instance hearing music, walking in a
wonderful landscape in springtime etc...

And a lot, which are npt joyful at all, but I didn't think
about those when trying to find an answer to Jason's
question.


Caveat:

I know - and please take notice of this fact, too - that
you may probably not understand exactly what I wanted to express -
because my limited kmowledge of the English langue I don't
know all the connotations of the words I used here and they are
certainly not the same as the ones of the corresponding words
or notions in German.  Hmmm... that's the difference between
using a natural language and using a programming language ...
(are they opposite ?)

I close before getting into an endless recursion ...

Regards
Gregor