m3mpp

EDIT: people or corporations, same thing.

It's not that simple, what would be this industry without Linux, without the FSF, without the BSD network stack (that is in all the macs...)

The growth of our industry, and probably of a good chunk of the whole economy for the last 10 years has a lot to do with those people working during nights and week-ends imo.

And here's the interesting part, things that you don't necessarily experience till it goes full blown, it's when you reach that point, the end of fear basically, your mind becomes calm. You don't necessarily realize it in the instant but that's it, you've stared into the abyss and it's not as awful as you imagined. At that point, you still have anxiety but that's it, it doesn't control you anymore, you're out of the 2 states loop, panic or fear it may happens. It's still painful, but it's not hell anymore, you know how it's gonna end, there's no more question.

Now, it's an incredible experience, can even become an spiritual one, it did for me, experiencing first hand how reality is subjective and how the mind works.

All in all, I wouldn't trade all those experiences for anything, it gives you an understanding of the human condition that not a lot of things can give you.

>make up for a slower brain, less stamina and decreasing memory

It's a fact, physiologically, that our cognitive skills decrease after the late 20s, there's abundance of literature on the subject. Now, getting older, and with experience, I believe we process information more efficiently (less cycle spent on bs), which can bring a net gain and make us more productive in our daily jobs, it's what I tried to explain in the first 2 sentences.

Concerning the "made it big", here's what I mean:

First, a computer + a brain capable of programming it is probably one of the most powerful combination that ever existed in nature. The potential for creation/disruption is immense, and we can see examples every day. Second, as software devs, one of the driving forces, probably the most important one, is creativity, imagining new things or new ways of doing them. So, when you combine those 2 things, the power and imagination, and then you spend most of your life working on some boring business app, from paycheck to paycheck, one can feel a little bit unaccomplished. The "make it big" here means feeling accomplished, having been able to move your art to its full potential. I know it's highly subjective of course, but I also know a lot of us are feeling that way, so it may not be as subjective as it seems.

I hope it clears up a bit.

For 2 and 3, not so sure, it's so difficult to say, I've seen a lot of shitty things becoming successful, and some real good things never amounting for anything over the years, that I'm real cautious about doing any kind of prevision nowadays... The old "the more I know, the more I realize how ignorant I am" thing.

It's ego, that's all it is, and it usually ends up very badly.

Edit: lobotomy is another solution of course, using pills or any kind of drugs that massively reduce the amount of neurons in the brain.

And yes, there's a fast climb, but it's not the only instance in history, look at 800AD, 200AD, and a lot more in the past, it seems to be the way the temp fluctuates, very sharply.

If we get back to the 10,000 years chart, do the last 150 years seems off the chart? If anything, it shows that we're cooler than the last 10,000 years.

Doggerland was submerged 5,000 BC because of water rising due to the ice cap melting...

Everything looks extreme when looked at a very small scale...