Friday March 27, 2009

It's about time

Holy cow, has it really been three years since I last posted? Well, I guess I can say I told you so now. I am shy, I'm not a natural blogger. But some things just force me to do it. Last time, it was a challenge from a colleague about the male dominance among bloggers on our team. This time, it's Ada Lovelace, and a challenge from another colleague (well done, Valerie!).

I'm of course late to the game; last Tuesday, March 24 was Ada Lovelace Day. But it's never too late to talk about the people or things that inspire us, right? I sure hope not.

I was in 7th grade when we read Isaac Asimov's I, Robot as a school assignment. I don't remember it being especially popular with my classmates; but I was hooked. The notion that there could be so many subtleties--and breakdowns-- associated with three seemingly simple rules was fascinating; the logical analysis of what went wrong completely enthralled me. And all the stories were told by Dr. Susan Calvin. She teased out the logic behind the seemingly aberrant behavior; she was the one who really understood the inner workings of the robots.

The path was not entirely direct (just a small detour through a degree in Electrical Engineering), but I think the memories of that book were what made software development feel just right when I landed here.

Surprisingly, I haven't gone back to re-read it. I tend not to re-read books much; there are always too many that I haven't read yet! It might be better to let the lovely, hazy memory remain so. Or maybe it will remind me of what I love about what I do.