I'd like to introduce you to a few of my closest friends

Because I firmly believe that the best thing you can do to be an amazing software engineer is spend some time doing something besides software engineering, I'd like to divert your attention away from the subject for a brief moment. I'll introduce you to a few of my closest friends (who aren't actually my friends, some aren't even alive) who have helped me understand what we do in ways you might not expect. If nothing else, I hope you'll learn some new ideas from this colorful group of writers, scientists, chefs, artists, and musicians.

Transcript

1. I’d like to introduce you to a few of my closest friends Michael R. Bernstein CUSEC, Montreal, QC, 15 Jan 2016
2. "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" by Wallace Stevens
3. I Among twenty snowy mountains, The only moving thing Was the eye of the blackbird. II I was of three minds, Like a tree In which there are three blackbirds. III The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds. It was a small part of the pantomime.
4. IV A man and a woman Are one. A man and a woman and a blackbird Are one. V I do not know which to prefer, The beauty of inflections Or the beauty of innuendoes, The blackbird whistling Or just after.
5. VI Icicles filled the long window With barbaric glass. The shadow of the blackbird Crossed it, to and fro. The mood Traced in the shadow An indecipherable cause. VII O thin men of Haddam, Why do you imagine golden birds? Do you not see how the blackbird Walks around the feet Of the women about you?
6. VIII I know noble accents And lucid, inescapable rhythms; But I know, too, That the blackbird is involved In what I know. IX When the blackbird flew out of sight, It marked the edge Of one of many circles.
7. X At the sight of blackbirds Flying in a green light, Even the bawds of euphony Would cry out sharply. XI He rode over Connecticut In a glass coach. Once, a fear pierced him, In that he mistook The shadow of his equipage For blackbirds.
8. XII The river is moving. The blackbird must be flying. XIII It was evening all afternoon. It was snowing And it was going to snow. The blackbird sat In the cedar-limbs.
9. Dedicated to Wallace Stevens, and all XIII Blackbirds
10. I’m obsessed
11. I’m doing just fine, thanks
12. Thelonious Monk Improvise
16. Gilles Deleuze Question Everything
18. Charles Baudelaire Redefine beauty
20. “What does it matter what reality is outside myself, so long as it has helped me to live, to feel that I am, and what I am?"
21. “It's Ennui!—his eye brimming with spontaneous tear He dreams of the gallows in the haze of his hookah. You know him, reader, this delicate monster, Hypocritical reader, my likeness, my brother!”
22. Brian Eno Hone Your Aesthetics
24. Virginia Woolf Use your real voice
26. “What is the meaning of life? That was all— a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years. The great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark; here was one.”
27. Harry Smith Obsess
28. "In 1950 Smith received a Guggenheim grant to complete an abstract film, which enabled him first to visit and later move to New York City.[10] He arranged for his collections, including his records, to be shipped to the East Coast. He said that "one reason he moved to New York was to study the Cabala. And, 'I wanted to hear Thelonious Monk play'."[11]"
31. Grant Achatz Persevere
34. Nancy Lynch Formalize
37. "I’ve tried in this talk to give you a good picture of the history, status and flavor of research in impossibility proofs for distributed computing. I hope you’re convinced that it is an interesting and fruitful area for research. Now with some luck, skill and inspiration, we can continue to make great strides, proving more and more things to be impossible!"
38. bell hooks Empathize
40. Michele Alexander See through the system
42. * Improvise * Question everything * Redefine beauty * Hone your aesthetics * Use your real voice * Obsess * Persevere * Formalize * Empathize * See through the system
43. The best thing you can do to be an amazing software engineer is spend some time doing something besides software engineering.
44. The opportunity is yours to help people live the lives that they deserve to live.
45. Thanks! @mrb_bk http://michaelrbernstein.in michaelrbernstein@gmail.com