I'm not sure how to express how happy I am that Steve Yegge is back. He's one of my blogging heroes. One of the few bloggers that I'm planning to reread entirely one day, because his writing is <i>just that good</i>. If you've never had the pleasure, <i>don't</i> be put off by the long blog posts. Read them, read them all, they're all amazing.<p>On the length issue: Honestly, Steve's posts were quite long (much like Paul Graham's). To me, it doesn't matter, because every one of them was worth reading all the way through. It sometimes meant I'd have to leave them for later, but I still read them. He mentions that he believed the length might have been a reason people read his posts. I can't speak for anyone else, but if the quality of his writing stays the same, I don't care <i>how</i> long his posts are, I'm reading them. The day he "retired" was truly a sad day for me.<p>By the way, I would happily buy a book of his collected writings (ala Hackers and Painters), so I really wish he would make such a book.
I know that negative criticism can hurt, no matter how insignificant or pointless. So to people like Steve Yegge, Joel Spolsky, the 37signal guys, pg, and many others who put part of themselves out there for the benefit of others, I suggest putting things into perspective with this handy formula:<p>Let n = the number of people whose lives your writing has effected.<p>Let m = the average magnitude of that effect.<p>Let e = the distribution effect of your medium (for one on one, e = 1,in a room of others, e = 2, print, e = 3, popular blog or forum, e = 4, etc.)<p>Let z = the sum of all the negativity of those who don't matter.<p>Then if the net total effect of your writing is A, we can say:<p><pre><code> A = (n*m)**e - z
</code></pre>
So, for almost any value of z, A will remain positive. Keep on writing. Please.
I've had my fair share of code reviews, so I had always assumed that I was adapted to criticism. However, in the process of writing a book I've discovered a whole new level of frustration. To be fair, there have been mistakes put down on the page and I fully expect that they be criticized. However, as soon as the face-to-face aspect of criticism is eliminated people lose their damn minds. I imagine 50 years ago there were boundless trolls writing their screeds to local newspapers. However, thanks to the Internet those guys have no barrier preventing their vitriol. As much as you try to avoid letting it bother you, the constant barrage is exhausting. I can't even imagine what it must be like for someone of Yegge or pg's readership.<p>As a teen I worked at a record shop. 99% of all customers were nice, courteous, or at worst disregard my existence. However, a single dickweed was all it took to ruin your whole day.
I'm thrilled that Yegge has made peace with the pack of wolves that roam the Internet, seeking to disparage those who... well, who knows their offense? He referenced them in some of his previous posts [0], so I figured they finally got the best of him. I loved reading his missives, and was sad to see them go.<p>[0] In <i>Story Time,</i> for instance, Steve says "If you read the comments with (Comic Book Guy)'s voice, a lot of them make a whole lot more sense."
Steve Yegge is the one person who comes closest to being singlehandedly responsible for my programming career. Back in high school, I discovered his game, Wyvern, while looking for a way to play Dungeons and Dragons online. At the time, the most prominent feature of the game was its extensibility, via Java and Jython. I made a few game areas and wrote an introductory manual for the world editor tool. Although I never submitted any of my code, the desire to create custom items and monster behaviors was my primary motivation for learning to program.<p>The inspiration that his blog provides (and the prodding) is much less effective for me. I started a blog. It may have five posts.
It was so great to read this post. It's a bit like an old friend moving back home after living far away for a while. I was always a little disappointed when I would see his blog title dimmed out in my RSS reader as I scrolled on to read things by less engaging bloggers. I think this is a side effect of Steve's blogging style: I feel like I know him personally because of the sheer amount of words he uses to communicate.<p>This post is a good reminder that these are <i>people</i> you're talking to online (yes, even the "Internet famous"). They're just ordianry people who have the same feelings, needs, and wants as you. Things you say have real, tangible, even powerful effects in the real world. It's easy to forget that with all this virtual stuff in between.
<i>I used to have lot of open, long-standing concerns about the future of programming and productivity, but my sabbatical last year finally brought me some clojure.</i><p>Mh, out of Steve Yegge's mouth, that's interesting to hear. I guess emacs is his tool of choice now¹ and Clojure's performance is pretty good from what I've heard.<p>¹ (Paraphrased: "Dynamic languages need better tools", see <a href="http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/05/dynamic-languages-strike-back.html" rel="nofollow">http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/05/dynamic-languages-st...</a>)
I thought that Steve's previous analysis that having crazily long posts was part of why they had such a impact was spot on. I'm surprised and disapointed that he's considering consciously making posts shorter and more frequent.
I wonder what happened to his Rhino on Rails project...I would love to hear a follow up on that.<p><a href="http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2007/06/rhino-on-rails.html" rel="nofollow">http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2007/06/rhino-on-rails.html</a><p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QD9XQm_Jd4" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QD9XQm_Jd4</a> (2008)
If Steve reads this:<p>Requested blog post please: "What I have learned at Google".<p>Given your background/experience it would be interesting to read your thoughts on Google's engineering machine, assuming they let employees blog about it. So far I've seen quite a few entertaining writeups from Nooglers, but mostly college graduates. I wonder what Amazon veteran had to re-learn there.
Good to have you back Steve!<p>No, not everyone had an issue with the length of your posts, quite the opposite - it was kind of fun to see a pleasantly small bar in the scrollbar knowing that the treat isn't ending any time soon.<p>Big fan, big fan here... I once declined a job offer from a company whose engineers never heard of you as I figured out during interviews.
Somehow I feel that the Google doctor would have a pretty good grasp on different forms of RSI. Good that he got help relatively quickly and seems better. But he should really IMNSHO stop playing guitar - typing all day is enough damage to the fingers.<p>Personally, tuba playing pushed me over the edge, and the only choice I had was to stop working with computers and start teaching. RSI should be taken very, very seriously.
In case anybody was wondering what was he playing, it's a brazilian classical music composer:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAg8VHuXNKU&feature=related" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAg8VHuXNKU&feature=relat...</a> - Choros nr1<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDc230BMy8Y&feature=related" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDc230BMy8Y&feature=relat...</a> - Choros nr10 (part 1)<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GVWge4q8uc&feature=related" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GVWge4q8uc&feature=relat...</a> - Choros nr10 (part 2)<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZnQj9yWTlo" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZnQj9yWTlo</a> - Trenzinho Caipira<p>Well and what could you expect from one of the greatest composers coming from the Brazilian musical culture? I accidentally started watching the Proms and was completely obliterated by that performance of Choros nr10, I had never enjoyed classical music that way.
I went back to Steve's list of recommended books, and I noticed that when I first read it I had read one of his recommendations, and now I'm up to eight. Probably my favorite tech blogger.
Yegge plays Villa-Lobos? That's so cool. For those of you who skipped over that part of the post... listen to this etude and <i>tell</i> me it's not badass: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxCR0aMeo8g" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxCR0aMeo8g</a> -- and don't bail before the middle tremolo section at 2:00.
Glad to hear that. Steve Yegge's post I hold dearest to my heart are: Dynamic Languages Strike Back, Rhinos and Tigers and Rhino on Rails (for controversial reasons and the guts to do it more than anything else).
Steve is clearly bright and interesting. So it perplexes me that his blog is adorned with a huge pledge of allegiance to a politician.<p>*I'd react equally negatively if his blog had a huge Nader or W2004 button on it. I guess I just don't understand the desire people have to idealize authority figures.
TLDR: <i>"I'm back after a year's hiatus from blogging... ramble ramble ramble ... And now that I'm rested up, I believe I'm ready to start tech blogging again... in moderation, anyway. The rest and relaxation and research did wonders for me. I used to have lot of open, long-standing concerns about the future of programming and productivity, but my sabbatical last year finally brought me some clojure[0]."</i><p>[0] <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1934356336?ie=UTF8&tag=steveysblogra-20&link_code=wql&camp=212361&creative=380601" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1934356336?ie=UTF8&tag=...</a><p>(Nice affiliate link, but hey I'd do the same)<p>Is anyone else as torn about long blog posts as I am? On the one hand, I do appreciate good software writing. But I also appreciate concise expressivity, saying more with less. They shouldn't be, and aren't, mutually exclusive.<p>These days I feel like I'm forced to choose between sacrificing an hour of productive coding to read through a bunch of overly long blog posts at HN and proggit and evaluate whether they were worth reading or not.