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Comment by jpk | Hacker News Reader

> You set out to write a bash script to move some files, you suddenly realize an amazingly better way to do bash scripting, which makes you realize some basic change in the OS that would make UI 1000% friendlier, then you realize we shouldn't be using computers at all, then you realize you are here on earth for a purpose and you are wasting your life then your buddy is like--YO you're spacing off and the chain of thinking starts over.

But let's be honest here: If your goal was to write the script, that sounds horribly unproductive.

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But is your goal to write the script? Or is it to enjoy your time here on Earth?

If writing that script at that time made sense and you were enjoying it, nothing could stop you from doing it. If you were wasting time and an unfocused individual, you'd see that.

"But is your goal to write the script?"

Yes. Because if you are writing a script, it obviously serves a purpose.

I think that the semantics behind the question implied end goal, as in is the ultimate goal of writing a bash script simply to write a bash script or is it something more, something beyond that? One would almost certainly reason that the answer must be the latter, yes?

Right; you shouldn't be writing bash scripts while tripping :)

I was just giving an example many people here would be familiar with so I could actually go through examples of each 'new level.' The whole thinking pattern goes on over and over starting with new 'seeds' to abstract from.

What about the next day when he uses his insight to write the script in 1/10th the time?

Please remind me not to ask you to write any scripts for me.

Why? eof's comment was wonderfully open and honest, but jpk's response was true. In the description, it's not clear that the script even got written. Would you accept this result if you had hired a freelancer to write the script?

I think the point is that EOF realized that there was an underlying problem to the bash script to begin with.

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