Comments on: Sunday Morning Zen

By: David

David — Mon, 26 May 2008 06:04:15 +0000

I was driving home last night, listening to Rachael Kohn (who’s normally really annoying) discussing, among other things, “Zen Flesh, Zen Bones”, and “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”. It was a pleasant change from her usual new-agey stuff (although there was a bit of that too), as her guests were unusually interesting.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 25 May 2008 12:05:19 +0000

The Broken Koans link seems to be, very appropriately, broken.

I can’t think of anything more Zen than a link that goes nowhere. But I’m not sure that it’s what you intended.

By: Dave Bath

Dave Bath — Sun, 25 May 2008 05:20:51 +0000

I’d highly recommend The Tao of Programming

3.3 is one of my favorites, even though not strictly koan-like (many bits of the T of P are):

There was once a programmer who was attached to the court of the warlord of Wu. The warlord asked the programmer: “Which is easier to design: an accounting package or an operating system?”

“An operating system”, replied the programmer.

The warlord uttered an exclamation of disbelief. “Surely an accounting package is trivial next to the complexity of an operating system”, he said.

“Not so,” said the programmer, “when designing an accounting package, the programmer operates as a mediator between people having different ideas: how it must operate, how its reports must appear, and how it must conform to the tax laws. By contrast, an operating system is not limited by outside appearances. When designing an operating system, the programmer seeks the simplest harmony between machine and ideas. This is why an operating system is easier to design.”

The warlord of Wu nodded and smiled. “That is all good and well, but which is easier to debug?”

The programmer made no reply.