Ficlets

I’ve started reading a book called The Pragmatic Programmer, all about treating development as a craft. It’s something I’ve believed for a while now, but didn’t connect it with the book until recently.

Then, today, I found this quote on a picture on flickr:

“If you want to really hurt your parents, and you don’t have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts. I’m not kidding. The arts are no way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.” – Kurt Vonnegut

It hit me, sitting in the movie theater, reading feeds on my phone, that this site is all about singing in the shower, dancing to the radio… telling stories. I’m not a professional writer. I’m a professional developer (we make magic), but I like writing fiction. Writing these little stories, allowing others to play along and continue them, helping each other out with constructive comments and ratings – it’s the equivalent of dancing to the radio – but with partners and friends. Spending a few minutes and writing a better story than the one we wrote the day before, and sharing them with the world, is our “enormous reward”.