Interesting Times
"May you live in interesting times" is the worst thing one can wish on a citizen of Discworld -- especially on the distinctly unmagical sorcerer Rincewind, who has had far too much perilous excitement in his life. But when a request for a "Great Wizzard" arrives in Ankh-Morpork via carrier albatross from the faraway Counterweight Continent, it's he who's sent as emissary. Chaos threatens to follow the impending demise of the Agatean Empire's current ruler. And, for some incomprehensible reason, someone believes Rincewind will have a mythic role in the war and wholesale bloodletting that will surely ensue. (Carnage is pretty much a given, since Cohen the Barbarian and his extremely elderly Silver Horde are busily formulating their own plan for looting, pillaging, and, er, looking wistfully at girls.) However, Rincewind firmly believes there are too many heroes already in the world, yet only one Rincewind. And he owes it to the world to keep that one alive for as long as possible.
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Citing Terry Pratchett’s “Interesting Times”.
- I read it first in the "Interesting Times" by Terry Pratchett. I don't know did he invented this phrase or borrowed it somewhere.
- That sounds less like helping the person overcome their problem and more like secretly demoting them into a figurehead while the devious Grand Vizier actually steers things.
I don't want my tools to work that way. Especially since the not-so-assistant may be making decisions to favor its parent-corporation.
> Once you were in the hands of a Grand Vizier, you were dead. Grand Viziers were always scheming megalomaniacs. It was probably in the job description: "Are you a devious, plotting, unreliable madman? Ah, good, then you can be my most trusted minister.”
-- Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett
- Poetic.
I am a big fan of "functional programming languages", including Lisp to an extent. That said, I appreciate the teachings they can impart - abstract structures, design sense / "design patterns", and ways of thinking etc. - more than any sort of dogma associated with "their way". Although, to be fair, I did go through my own period of foolishness in ... say, "venerating" this particular "methodology".
Your comment did prompt thought of Pratchett's book "Interesting Times". Specifically, passages like "... It had come as a revelation to Lord Hong when he looked at the problem the Ankh-Morpork way and realized that it might just possibly be better to give the job of Auspicious Dog-maker to some peasant with a fair idea about metal and explosive earths than to some clerk who'd got the highest marks in an examination to find the best poem about iron. In Ankh-Morpork, people did things."
The tricky bit in everything, and the difference between the true expert and not quite is often found in forms of "executive function" ... Knowing what to apply and when ... when to change up strategies, what the value is in some methodology and how to bring that into what you are doing ... all these sorts of things.
I always know when I'm at more of an "advanced intermediate" level (a sort of "first black belt" level) when I know too many ways to go about doing something but have no idea which is likely to produce solid progress in a relatively time-efficient way.
So, bit of a digression off of your comment, but stimulating from my perspective and hopefully of some use to anyone who might read this.
- I understand the founders are Terry Pratchett / Discworld fans from the name of the associations.
For non french speakers, Deuxfleurs is the french traduction of the Twoflower character appearing in The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic and Interesting Times from Terry Pratchett's Discworld books series.
- No, I'm not. I'm familiar with the curse (it's referenced extensively, and even influences the title, of Pratchett's "Interesting Times"). I'm even making a similar statement with my comments on JS; hence why "too clever" is a bad thing.
