rattus rattus’ blog

Cartoon by Hugh Macleod

“People matter. Objects don’t,”
he wrote on an object,
with a liar’s smile
on his face.

The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.

— George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)

There is this wonderful short German phrase about quality being more important than quantity:

Qualität zählt!

Transcribed into English it reads:

Quality counts!

Of course, in English, one could wittily say “Quality matters!” Though, if you search the web for these treasures of linguistic and logical quality you will find similar quantities of texts stating the one or the other ;)

Since many writers even dare to add the statement “less is more” I wonder why they do not just stick to it.

[X] [G] [G (German)]

[“He says I am exceptional. But so is he!”]

Linus Torvalds, recently wrote about debugging hell in his private blog. What I read is a wonderful variation of Paul Watzlawick’s story of a man who is looking for his keys where the lantern shines instead of where he lost them:

Torvalds was desperately looking for the solution of a serious problem which seemed to occur only spontaneously and at a time where it could not be observed, analyzed or tracked. Later, a method was found which allowed to trigger the problem but it apparently had “nothing what-so-ever to do with the actual failure itself”. Eventually, colleagues found “the real clue” by looking at one incident where the problem did not occur.

“If this is what you want”.

Want, wish, desire, need, necessity, to hope for, and long for, to envision and imagine, also habit, being used to, require, or lust, appetite, hunger, passion, zest, and — last but sure not least — love are all similar in some ways. One might say these notions are all the same as much as they are different — and differentiating.

And then, there is what we do, and there is what we talk (or write) about, which is just another act which we think of as being what we “want”.

This is (in short) what I wanted to say.

[X]

[Ratta is looking for a way out — not in.]