The Zen Programmer | Hacker News Reader

The Zen Programmer

zenprogrammer.org

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Does anyone feel like a book by a non-zen expert that attempts to teach something as deep and ancient as zen through programming analogies actually does more harm than good? It teaches neither programming nor zen, and may contain a number of cherry-picked principles that are devoid of the context necessary for understanding.

I think it would be awesome of someone wrote book about very specific processes that they were able to come up with as a result of practicing some philosophy, and leave the actual teaching of the philosophy to an expert.

This book is containing my own story with Zen. How did it change me personally and how does my daily work life looks like. What have I understood from it. And so on. Actually the book contains the result of my practice. Inside the book you'll find many references to the actual original texts where you can read more about it.

You wrote "may contain" and "it does not". You simply don't know whats inside the book if you haven't read it.

Instead of assuming what the book is about or not, I invite you to just read it. If you are not happy with it I will refund you. Or if you buy it on Leanpub they will refund you according to their 100% happiness guarantee (on Leanpub you have even a bit more time to read the book).

Here is the book on Leanpub: https://leanpub.com/thezenprogrammer

Here is the happiness guarantee: https://leanpub.com/thezenprogrammer#happiness_guarantee

There is no risk for you. When you have read it I am happy about your email if you liked it or not and if you actually see any harm in it.

My comment wasn't purely speculative. That would be unfair. It contains the thoughts that I had after reading your sample.

Here's one excerpt

Kôdô Sawaki says: if you need to sleep, sleep. Don’t plan your software when you are trying to sleep. Just sleep. If you code, code. Don’t daydream—code. If you are so tired that you cannot program, sleep. Even known multitaskers like Stephan Uhrenbacher have decided to work singlethreaded

Who's Sawaki? Who's Uhrenbacher? This is what I mean by missing context. Now that I think about it, some of the criticism (mine included) may be due to the fact that you picked the final chapter to represent a sample. You pretty much gave away the ending, and we have no clue how you got there.

Sawaki is a known Zen Master. He didn't write texts on his own; his books are just quotes collected by his students. The internet is full with information on him.

Stephan Uhrenbacher is linked in the original blog post: http://www.grobmeier.de/the-10-rules-of-a-zen-programmer-030...

The "10 rules" post is the beginning, not the end.

The more expert a teacher claims to be, the more they have to learn.

I think any career advice that isn't coming from the people who've hired is good advice.

That does look interesting but it might be too philosophical for many hackers. I would instead recommend Time Management for Sysadmins, Tim Lemoncelli, O'Reilly and Pragmatic Thinking and Learning, Andy Hunt, PragProg. Both are interesting and helpful but much more practical, especially TMSA, which I should dust off and re-read.

http://everythingsysadmin.com/books.html

http://pragprog.com/book/ahptl/pragmatic-thinking-and-learni...

The ZP book is not about time management.

For someone who never heard of you, your book or "zen programming" before, there is not enough information either here or on your site to make a purchase decision.

I would respectfully ask a few questions. Who are you? Why are you qualified to write a programming book? Why are you qualified to write a "zen programming" book? How long have you been a programmer? What concrete things will someone who studies the book get out of it?

I read the intro of the site, the description of the book on the site, the testimonials and the Ten Rules of a Zen Programmer and still don't know the answers to these questions other than seeming platitudes.

Thank you for your constructive feedback.

I will add a few paragraphs with more information when I find a few minutes.

Please note, if you would buy the book and if you are not happy with it I will fully refund you (see terms). This is also the case when you purchase at Leanpub.

Looks interesting, but it would be great if there's an example chapter or two.

Try that: http://www.zenprogrammer.org/en/the10rulesofazenprogrammer.h...

Table of contents - https://leanpub.com/thezenprogrammer Sample chapter - http://www.zenprogrammer.org/en/the10rulesofazenprogrammer.h...

"This book will teach you that there are more than just emails, phone calls, and urgent issues."

There are more what? Or did you mean to write 'there is more'? In any case, it's a weak statement. Of course there's more, what about just programming?

The only information I get from that introductory paragraph is that the book is about saying no to certain things in a zen way.

Thank you.

I will try to improve the section.

just bought it and now it says: https://www.evernote.com/shard/s8/sh/aee8a9f9-e438-4b6d-9051...

Hello, i fixed that. Please try again. Sorry for the issue!

cool thanks! works perfectly fine!

Great :-)

I appreciate the sample text, thank you.

In it I found this advice:

'Kôdô Sawaki once said: “You are not important.”

Think about it.'

Why should a person consider himself unimportant? What actions would follow from a person who truly does not value himself or herself?

Perhaps spontaneous ones?

um... I am very interested in the book but apart from a vague description I have no idea what it says. A table of contents would be very useful to extrapolate what I can grok from it maybe?

You are right, I will include a TOC to the page. Meanwhile, you can see it here: https://leanpub.com/thezenprogrammer

I've been lurking on HN for 4+ years, don't comment, and have only 3 karma. I'm breaking radio silence to say I've just purchased your book and very much look forward to reading it in full. From what I've skimmed this really meshes well with a direction I have been trending in myself and I just wanted to give you a vote of confidence and congratulations on getting the book out into the wild. I hope you are not too put off by the reactionary backlash here on HN. For a site ostensibly about new tech perspectives, I find the commenting culture of this site often puzzling.

Thanks a lot! Actually I was a bit concerned on a few comments here.

I like your book. Thanks for writing & sharing it.

Thank you!

Thank you...

Is this book digital only, or can I get an actual printed copy?

Currently it is digital only. I am preparing a physical copy via Createspace (Amazon). I am planning to give vouchers for the physical copy to the buyers of the ebook but I haven't figured out if this is supported by Createspace or not. The ebook comes as PDF which you should be able to print on your own at Lulu.com too, if you like.

Thanks. Call me old fashioned, but I like to read actual books versus my computer/tablet. I am interested in the book, and will probably buy a copy. It would be nice to be able to get a physical copy in the future :-)

I understand you - I own a lot of books myself. Personally I am not sure if I would buy Zen related e-books. However I am preparing the book to work with CreateSpace. If you would like to get notified join the mailing list at zenprogrammer.org or follow @zenprog. Thanks anyway for you comment. It motivates me to push the physical issue :-)

Sind Probekapitel vorhanden?

Probier das: http://www.zenprogrammer.org/en/the10rulesofazenprogrammer.h... (das Buch wird noch in Deutsch übersetzt, dauert aber noch etwas bis das fertig ist)

holly crap - I know kung-fu

show me

The sample chapter really drives home what I dislike about Zen. It's taking this cute little ego thing and trying to lure it into a trap. Hah! That'll show it. Cut off its tail! Clever!

Rather, I prefer the more direct Advaita Vedanta approach: quickly smother it with napalm.

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