summer time. graduations. commencement speeches. reflection.

my brother graduated recently so i attended one such ceremony first hand. then, after perusing my inbox and such, i ran across two other commencement speechs, both of which are, well, inspirational. given i'm now putting spit-shine on my java one demos, spinning coldplay in my ipod and having a really nice northern california day stare at me through the window, i thought i'd jot down some of these quotes that truly struck a chord with me and why i dig, i mean *really dig*, software engineering, specifically jxta and, more importantly, the opportunity jxta provides.

ok, software engineering. why? everyone rightfully so has their own personal answers to that question. for me, it is the social connection, with real people, that is growing deeper and broader all at once that is behind every line of code i scribe. this first dawned on me, i guess, when i joined sun in '92 helping to work out the kinks in software licensing. in working w/ real people and building systems that spanned the globe and strived to "stay invisible" i found it was the network of people and associated processes i enjoyed working through the most. getting the code to compile was secondary. this is also why i'm a huge fan of xp as well, more on that later. i then moved on to the "e" projects, as in eReg, eCommerce, etc. while i'm proud of what was done, i wish not to work on another project that starts with the letter "e" again. why? well, in a nutshell is was the people, the network, the process that became, candidly, muddled during those heady days. so, i moved on, to swag projects like tomcat, startups, blogging, etc. why? because of the "people," the dialogs, the conversations that were occuring with these technologies and again, the applications that were and are being dreamed up and the fact "real" people, my mom, get to use the derivative works and the discussions start over again, at a higher level, with context, real context. that's what it is all about. the intermittent compile cycles and such are just necessary milestones to the "dialog" that drives innovation.

these cummulative experiences and basic curiosities are what drove me to jxta, an extremely enabling piece of technology, jxta "is" the network, to which the potential and associated dialogs are vast and very real. often, i grab folks first impressions, as quoted, when they use myjxta and post them to the the wall of words. these are real quotes. real people. my wife. my mom. new friends. this is very real. this is "the why" i engineer. the cummulative results of a small group of folks that ask "why" and incrementally start out on the mission, tuning and adjusting along the way, is what it is all about. make it "real." continue to ask "why."

ok, with that backing context in mind, and back to the afore mentioned commencements, what inspires me, in a nutshell? time to swim through some inspirational thoughts.

first up, greg papadopoulos delivered the commencement address for irvine. i can't find a link to the address so i'll include a couple of excerpts within. i do hope those that published the address do not mind, but as i see it, this stuff needs to be shared. made my day anyways.

from greg's address the following stood out, profoundly so:

Wanna be a great engineer? Know your stuff, make things that are simple and elegant, and embrace criticism in order to make them even better. That's all there is to it. Easy, huh?
...
It won't be easy, and it takes most of us years to reach a point where criticism of our work doesn't feel like criticism of our selves, but I think the place to start is with the realization that you have a responsibility to other people.
...
But your responsibility is actually much broader than that, because engineering has the capacity to touch the day-to-day lives of more people than any other discipline I can think of.
...
but the only way you would get there is by thinking in terms of the social context.
...
Practice engineering in a social context.
...
You have a duty to make things simple, usable, secure, and safe.

there it is. simple. concise. real. my take. add a mix of humility and great social awareness and it all becomes, well, grounded. real.

back to xp a bit. one of xp's fundamentals is "collective code ownership." this is manifested quite simply, using words like "our, we, and us" vs "you and i." in practice, it works ... when people step back and, well, relax.

ok, the other commencement i noted. theme, "connect the dots," by one steve jobs. read it. really. now, go read it. don't worry, i'll wait here for you when you have finished.

what stood out for me? connect the dots. easier said then done but obvious in hindsight. translation: DO IT!

we're all collecting dots. it's the journey that matters, not the destion to which i'll add it's what you do with dots you collected on the journey that truly matters. share and share alike. share dots. see what happens. see what you learn in return. society will be the better for it ... and so will you.

love. passion. need ... and compromise. to quote:

You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

don't settle. do not settle.

in the end, it all only matters so much. this isn't a bad thing at all and in fact this perspective, alone, keeps in check all the little distractions that flirt by from time to time. some distractions are good. some are, well, in steve's case, potentially cancerous.

keep distractions at bay. don't settle. ask why ... and do it!

i'll post some of my engineering contributions soon, given java one is nearly at our doorstep. the ensuing dialogs, the "what next" dialogs are what i'm looking forward to for code simply compiles. what we do with it, collectively, is what matters.

collaborate. community. societal context. share. don't be left out.

rock on!

MyJXTA :: use it - learn it - do it

Java == platform independence
XML == application independence
JXTA == network independence

Secure End-to-End Computing

in my ears: Coldplay/A Rush Of Blood To The Head/A Rush Of Blood To The Head