Code Te Ching - Verse 46

When a tiger begins to run to parts unknown,
    she must first lean forward.
This is called instability.

When a tiger's paws land on the earth,
    they find their place of comfort.
This is called self-organizing.

When a tiger's eyes see, ears hear,
    the feet know to move.
This is called multi-learning.

When a tiger has her senses about her
    no trap can capture her feet.
This is called subtle control.

When a cub watches his mother run,
    he will mimic her movements.
This is called knowledge transfer.

Instability, self-organizing, multi-learning, subtle control, knowledge transfer.
This is the natural way of action.

Forced unnatural natural force? Madness!
Artificial process? Confusion!
The sage guides but does not manage.

Code Te Ching - Verse 45

A friend told another friend:
    "I performed my first Linux install today. I am better than Windows users!"
The friend replied:
    "That is nothing! I have performed a dozen Linux installs, each better than the last."
A third friend said:
    "I have installed my one hundredth last week. I am a master!"

A man in the corner laughed.

The friends asked:
    "Why do you laugh? How many have you installed?"

He replied:
    "The same as your friend here - only one."

The friends guffawed, and the old man said:
    "Yes one. In 1993. It still runs my mail server."

The friends had nothing to say.

Code Te Ching - Verse 44

Two Fredericks were talking.
Taylor said to Brooks:
I know of a process, the kind they call "agile."
The rules are too flexible, so lacking in specifics,
No one can make sense out of it.
A graph would be impossible.
You cannot cut it up in any way that makes sense.

There the idea sits,
No executive will look twice.

Such is your teaching –
big and useless.

Brooks replied:
Have you ever seen the wildcat
Crouching and watching his prey –
This way it leaps, and that way,
high and low, and at last lands the trap.

Have you seen the yak?
Great as a thundercloud
He stands in his might.

Big? Yes: but he can't catch mice!

So for your process. Big and useless?
Then plant it in the depths of organization
In the unfinished projects.
Walk idle around
Watch while projects finish themselves.
No executive can touch it.
No chart can ever tie it down.

Useless? You should worry!

Code Te Ching - Verse 43

Of the activities of the mind that exist in a vacuum
Coding is not one of them.

Does the author of a book own the story
    that his readers read?
Does the painter of a masterpiece own the scene
    that the painting evokes?
Does the carpenter of a house own the home
    that the house holds?
Neither does a coder own the function of the code he writes.

True:
    books have publishers,
    paintings have museums,
    houses have buyers,
    code has distributors.
False:
    any of these are permanent.

Stories are copied,
Images fall out of style,
Homes are abandoned,
Code is obsolete.

But who will shed a tear when code is obsolete?
Not even the author.
The ten thousand things will destroy it.

Code written has no owner.
Code written is owned by all.
Why expel effort grasping the unownable?
The result will not repay the effort.

Code Te Ching - Verse 42

Perfect numbers are an illusion
    they give a sense of control.
Perfect measures create confusion,
    they lose track of reality.

Reality is imperfect.

Thus the wise guide empirically,
not by number and measure.

Rules are for the benefit of fools
the wise need only follow his heart.

Code Te Ching - Verse 41

When a great man hears of the Code
    He understands its true depth.
When an average man hears of the Code
    He confuses its finger for the moon.
When a fool hears of the Code
    He laughs at its stupidity.
Without the laughter, Code would not be what it is.

The efficient code seems complex.
The simple code looks fast.

This is how it has been.

But what is beyond simple or efficient?
What is more and less than what it seems?
What is beyond math and beyond the mind?

Here is where the great men dwell.

Code Te Ching - Verse 40

Good developers are often defiant.
    But the best understand the true role of management.
Good managers are often decisive.
    But the best understand the true role of management.

What is the true role of management?
It cannot be defined, only described:
    To shield good developers from the chaotic world of business.
    To ensure good developers get what they need.
    To empower good developers making good decisions.
    To entitle good developers to the credit they deserve.
    To help good developers stay centered.

The wise manager is ambitionless.
He does his work and quietly steps back.

Code Te Ching - Verse 39

Computers are an extension of intention.
Therefore, the sage is One with the machine.

What do I mean when I say:
    "One with the machine"?
Do not think like the machine, only,
let it be an extension
        of your intention

Code Te Ching - Verse 38

The highest understanding does not show it,
    therefore understands.
The lowest understanding is always aware of it,
    therefore does not understand.

The highest understanding does not force action,
    And does not need to.
The lowest understanding forces action,
    Because it needs to.

The highest merit takes action,
    But need not act.
The highest certification takes action,
    And it must act.
The lame takes action,
    And when no one responds to it,
    It rolls up its sleeves and screams.

Thus it was:
    When the Code is lost,
        Understanding appeared.
    When understanding is lost,
        Merit appeared.
    When merit is lost,
        Certification appeared.
    When certification is lost,
        Lameness appeared.

Lameness only projects good intention and sincerity,
And is the beginning of disorder.
Swift learning is only a flower of the Code,
And the beginning of stupidity.

Therefore the elite dwells:
In the thick, not the thin.
In the fruit, not the flower.
Rejects one, accepts the other.

Code Te Ching Book I - Code

What is the sound of one hand hacking?

Book I (道) of the Code Te Ching is complete. Following the style of four standard English translations of the Tao Te Ching (道德經), and the two texts from Ma Wang Tui (馬王堆帛書), A (chia) and B (i) compared by Prof. Robert Henricks.

The central concept of the TTC is its preaching of wu wei (non-action), or action without high-minded ideals, action that does not have a conceptual driving force, or action done for the act - not the fruits of the act. We can only assume that the author(s) created these verses as a labor of love, not out of a desire for some future reward or high-minded ideal. There are those who say that action not driven by rational thought is blind and that its results are substandard. The realizations within the Taoist texts, like the Tao itself, could not have been the same were they analyzed or pinned down with any rigid western conceptual framework. This potently short, 5,000 character, 81-chapter book has endured for eons. If nothing else: that is proof positive that action does not have to be intentional to be good or lasting.

This relates to my philosophy of code. Simplicity, subtlety - these are the ways of the master. Thus spake Jeff Hawkins:

Complexity is a symptom of confusion, not a cause.

Simplify a problem, framed in its most basic essence, and no coding problems are insurmountable. There are many ways to simplify, thinking down to the machine, or up to the highest levels of abstraction... somewhere there exists an answer. Getting stuck in a silo stifles thoughts and breeds substandard results. Sometimes you must think like a customer, or a client - a coder or a manager - but always effortlessness is the goal. This is the way of the master, the hacker, the elite. Simplicity is the way, agility is the method.

Book II is next, and focuses on team leaders: Te (aptly pronounced "duh").

Code Te Ching - Verse 37

The Code endures with no name.
Were process able to posess it
the machine would work on its own.

Were this the case
our lives would become simplicity.
No more disgraceful meetings

Also: no paychecks

-- The Code

Code Te Ching - Verse 36

Language is only convenience.
Do not confuse it be more.

Language allows for a path to understanding,
    this is true, but
Language can chain the strong to non-understanding -
    there is no "right" way to code (in all cases),
    and no "right" language to use (in all cases).

The elite knows the simple truth:
    speak the correct language
    at the correct time

Code Te Ching - Verse 35

If you wish to strengthen it,
    You must certainly break it.
If you wish to sophisticate it,
    You must certainly shrink it.
If you wish to quicken it,
    You must certainly dismantle it.

Improvement is always destructive.

Code Te Ching - Verse 34

Defined process is inflexible
    Stifles results.
Empirical process is flexible
    Emergent results.

Too many colors blind the eye.
Too many noises deafen the ear.
Too many flavors deaden the palate.
Too many variables destroy the definition.

Empirical process is indefinable.

So Lao Tzu said:
    Look – you won’t see it.
    Listen – you won’t hear it.
    Use it – you will never use it up.

Code Te Ching - Verse 33

A coder's true worth is the deeds he has done:
Not the words he has to say.

Be wary of false knowledge.
It disguises itself well with much talking.

Code Te Ching - Verse 32

“Mankind” does not exist.
“Time” does not exist.

“Man-hours” doubly do not exist.

They are a delusion of the mind, that is all.

The foolish man answers:
One coder? It will take two days.
Two coders? It will take one day.

Silly! Folly! Foolishness!

The great clock of the universe is not so precise,
How much less the minds of men?

The wise man answers:
One coder? It has taken two days before.
Two coders? I do not know!

Any time given is a guess.
How long is too long, then?
The wise man is not confused.
He says simply:
    I shall know it when I see it.

Code Te Ching - Verse 31

Close your mind and click away?
The elite does not debug this way.

To debug requires the focus of new development
More even,
    for options are limited,
    and the work: tedious.

The wise man does not fear bugs
He treats them all with dispassionate concern.

Code Te Ching - Verse 30

Do not code to optimize.
Let design spill over like milk.

There is always time to clean it up.

Keep focused on the center, and
systems improve themselves.

Code Te Ching - Verse 29

Heaven and earth may be unkind,
but coders should not be treated as such.

The wise manager treats his coders
not like straw dogs,
not like straw puppies.

If quality is the goal, you must do as the wise do:
Respect the coders who make the real profit.

Code Te Ching - Verse 28

To know Code is to know the abstract.
To know code is to know the real.

How do we know the abstract?
    Mathematics.
How do we know the real?
    Engineering.
How do we realize both?
    The Machine.

Math without engineering is fruitless.
Engineering without math is expressionless.
The machine without both is lifeless.

Therefore:
Code gives pure math a purpose.
Code gives engineering expression.
Code gives the machine life.