Last month I made my first open source contribution. You can read about the project in detail here, but I just wanted to point out something amazing.
I wrote most of the code in November and submitted it for review in December. It was first tested by a guy in Pakistan, and with his feedback I made changes. Then it was tested by a guy in Boston. Once again, feedback and changes. Finally, it was tested and approved by a guy in Austria, and promoted to full project status by a guy in Germany.
While I waited to get feedback, I also tested code for a guy in Spain, a guy in San Francisco, and a guy in the United Arab Emirates.
When was the last time you collaborated with 7 people from 6 different countries, ad hoc, over a two week period, to bring forward some common work?
This is an amazing world we live in.
I really love the Google Zeitgeist videos for the spirit in which they reflect on each year (see the ones for 2010, 2011, and 2012). These are fantastic for looking back at the big events we all experienced throughout the year.
I also like to put together an annual retrospective (see the ones for 2010 and 2011) to consider the things my family and I have experienced and the ways that we have grown. Let's jump in.
2012 was amazing.
Our family grew by 33%, if you count number of people, or only by 3.5%, if you are counting biomass. We added 11,527 miles to our car and, collectively, we stepped foot in 1 Country, 1 Ocean, 8 airports and 23 States. Since last year, the number of books I read decreased by 58% but the number of blogs I subscribed to increased by 113%. I tweeted 176 times, posted 111 things on Facebook, and built 5 websites [1][2][3][4][5].
It was also the first year I:
Programmed a game
Put up a Facebook ad
Spoke on a radio show
Landed a salary
Saw a giant squid
Got a tweet from someone with 20K+ followers
Paid money for an eBook
Ran 5k at the National Mall
Ate food out of a dumpster
Met the President
Held my own garage sale
Visited San Diego, San Francisco, Portland, Boston, and Washington DC
Walked through the Redwood Forest
Bled the brake lines on our car
Was interviewed on television
Attempted to grow a Mustache (I'll spare you a link to that one)
Moved across the country
Got a smartphone
Ate octopus
Had an FBI background check
Bought a couch
Watched the US Presidential Debates
Graduated college
Had a son
Saw Marine One
Took a shower when the water couldn't get as cold as I wanted
Cleaned up after a Hurricane
Saw a Jackson Pollack
Sent out a Christmas card
Juggled three diapers in the air
Had my Gmail account compromised
Contributed to open source
Then again, Holly made an 18 pound boy, entirely from her own bodily resources… which is something I could never do. It was also the first year she:
Spent 7 hours on a plane with 2 children under 2 years old
Made a homemade apple pie without accidentally substituting salt for sugar
Took a child to the emergency room
Went inside the Washington DC Temple
Hosted Thanksgiving dinner
Was elected county delegate at republican convention
Learned self-hypnosis
Ate chicken at Joe's Crab Shack
Hit a traffic cone
What a year.
(Detailed Stats: 2011: 3 family members, 283 lbs, mileage=153629, read 12 books, total blog subscriptions=24. 2012: 4 family members, 293 lbs, mileage=165156, read 5 books, total blog subscriptions=51)
Our American culture of consumption has happily made Ebenezer Scrooge into public enemy number one. Him and his miserly ways has been branded as the antithesis of all things good about Christmas.
Think about it. Is that really justified?
Is it so wrong that his wisdom and prudence in spending is suddenly unpopular in the holiday season? Is it so wrong that he suffers personal discomfort in an attempt to conserve scarce resources like fuel for his lamps and coal for his fire?
According to economist Steven Landsburg, the anwer is NO! Here is an exerpt from an awesome article he wrote about our good old friend Ebenezer Scrooge:
Here's what I like about Ebenezer Scrooge: His meager lodgings were dark because darkness is cheap, and barely heated because coal is not free. His dinner was gruel, which he prepared himself. Scrooge paid no man to wait on him. Scrooge has been called ungenerous. I say that's a bum rap...
Put a dollar in the bank and you'll bid down the interest rate by just enough so someone somewhere can afford an extra dollar's worth of vacation or home improvement. Put a dollar in your mattress and (by effectively reducing the money supply) you'll drive down prices by just enough so someone somewhere can have an extra dollar's worth of coffee with his dinner. Scrooge, no doubt a canny investor, lent his money at interest. His less conventional namesake Scrooge McDuck filled a vault with dollar bills to roll around in. No matter. Ebenezer Scrooge lowered interest rates. Scrooge McDuck lowered prices.
Check out the link for the rest of the article:
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/holidays/2004/12/what_i_like_ab...
Merry Christmas, everyone.