Post date: Nov 29, 2008 4:29:25 AM
What is Balance? [Read this article]
Recently I floated in a 12ft deep swimming pool for an hour! This was my first time ever and I'm 34 years of age. No huffing and puffing, no extra inborn lung/body capacity, and yet there I was, and even the hand leg movements is just to relax and not to float. Don't believe me? Or maybe you believe this, and also assume that I'm kind of a mystic who can walk on water!? Of course probably not the second, but that is the kind of extreme stance we take when we encounter an balance act. If something is fantastic, either it has to be impossible practically, or it is some awesome mystery. Maybe there is another uninteresting option, that of meticulous practice: Kind of go daily to the field, slog it out, practice all day, and slowly you become a master. So anything fantastic is either one of these 3 options: Impossible, Mysterious, or Boring. Right? So not worth trying for? Now all ye non-swimmers, and even swimmers who cannot do the above, how do you see it? I can assure you I really did this (call me, I can show you), I'm no born swimmer, and finally this does not take years of boring practice (in fact I feel I can teach this to anybody interested, in under 10 minutes).
Ah! There you see it, it is kind of a trick. Right? The 4th reason for anything fantastic is a secret trick? Maybe there is a 5th reason then.
...Programing is not natural. If you consider basic global variable based programming, all you need are only 4 concepts: Maybe statements (assignment and expression), Variables, Loops, Branch. This is the complete set for even full mastery, and you might take say 1-2 hours to explain all in detail with an example. And yet the newbie cannot program even simple "Add all numbers below N" like non-trivial 3-liners. So what is the problem? Teaching methods? Maybe a programing gene?! Nope. The confidence to be able to break any logical problem into a program is also a 'Balance'. Why a balance, why not just term it as a knowledge? As we saw, not all all knowledge is a balance. Memorizing is not a Balance. You don't forget programming if you have not learned to do it once. It does not come really incrementally but only in snaps.