I sometimes call myself the Emperor's Toymaker. It's got a nice Matrix-cum-Fairy Tale sound to it, but it's also apt. I write software toys for a well-known computer game designer. The toys help him spark his creativity.
Two weeks ago, I wanted to take a few days to integrate Lua (www.lua.org) into our application, so I could expose some of the key algorithms to him and the other designers. "Oh, no," said the Emperor, "I don't want you to get bogged down. Just give me this list of features and we'll iterate on them."
"Nuts to you," sez I. "Give me three days."
"Well," sez he, "when you put it that way..."
We compromised. Those three days came in fits and starts over the last two weeks. I just got the system working last Friday.
Yesterday, I'm meeting with the Emperor and one of the other toymakers and it was all he (the Emperor) could do not to yank the keyboard out of my hand and start hacking away at the Lua code.
"Okay," sez he, "this is cool."
That's why I do this. It is my PURpose. I BELIEVE it is my DEStiny.
Posted by Jason at November 18, 2003 02:45 PM