MettaProgramming

So, I have this habit which I’m trying to break, but which, like all habits, is much easier say you’ll break than it is to actually break. This habit, this problem, if you will, is simply this: I do things.

It sounds simple, like anyone does it, but it’s not.

Robotics

When I was in College, I decided that I wanted to play with robots. Then I decided that I wanted to learn about robotics. Then I decided that I wanted to use robotics to fly on NASA’s Zero Gravity plane (which I did- that was a blast). Then I decided that kids would have fun with robotics, so I decided to play with robots with kids. Then I decided to teach robotics to kids. Then I decided create a completely different problem-based learning curriculum for the 8th grade science standards and teach that curriculum in a middle school, completely re-writing the way science is taught.

All of these decisions took just enough time to set all the balls in motion and develop an initial email explaining the idea. About two hours. A year later I was finishing my first 8th grade mission to the moon, in which they had designed and built a robotic mission, including help from NASA scientists, whom they contacted of their own accord. Three years I taught that program– all because I wanted to play with robots.

I know. What the hell, Right?

Geomorphology

Another time, in grad school, I had to teach a geomorphology course and had a few example labs from a previous course, so I decided to update those labs. Then I decided to add to those labs. Then I decided to re-design the labs. Then I decided to write a new lab book. Then I decided to write an introductory geomorphology book. Then I decided that I needed to learn more about math, so I then decided to write a quantitative geomorphology book– complete with 10 chapters, exercises, labs, and complex mathematical projects. Strangely, I think it’s actually being used to teach graduate level geomorphology at two engineering universities in Japan.

Yeah. What the hell.

See what I mean?

It’s a problem.

And I haven’t even talked about The Mixing Zone!

Now Ruby?

So yesterday, I did another stupid thing. I decided to start a Ruby User’s group in The Gorge. The idea, like all of them, sprung from a tiny little seed because there’s a hosting company who gives a discount to Ruby User’s group members. So I decided to join a Ruby User’s group, but there’s not one here. Then I decided that even though I probably won’t get their hosting, it really is a good idea to join a Ruby User’s group so I can learn more. Since I had already gone through a separate, but equally byzantine, decision process about actually teaching Ruby,¹ I then decided that it would be a good idea for other people learning it to have a Ruby User’s group. And then I decided that, hell, since there are only three of us that I know of in Hood River who are programming in Ruby, it wouldn’t be that hard to just go ahead and organize one, right?

Again, this all took about 2 hours, and afterward, I had a RubyGorge domain (a strangely appropriate pun on RubyForge) and a website.

What. The. Hell?

It’ll come back and bite me in the ass, I know it will. But right now, it doesn’t actually seem like much. I mean, I’m going to be trying to get together with the one or two other people I know who program in Ruby to buy them beer so they teach me things anyway, right? So, since I’m scheduling that anyway, I may as well throw up a “we’re meeting at Double Mountain” on a blog, right. I mean, we don’t have to organize pizza and presenters like the Portland Java Users Group!

Honestly, it’s only about 5 or 10 more minutes of work to do the same thing I’d be doing anyway, right?

Yeah.

I know.

It’s a problem.

I do things.

What the hell, John?

1. can you say “what the hell?” [↩]