They are fools that think that wealth or women or strong drink or even drugs can buy the most in effort out of the soul of a man.  These things offer pale pleasures compared to that which is the greatest of them all, that task which demands from him more than his utmost strength, that absorbs him, bone and sinew and brain and hope and fear and dreams - and still calls for more.

They are fools that think otherwise.  No great effort was ever bought.  No painting, no music, no poem, no cathedral in stone, no church, no state was ever raised into being for payment of any kind.  No Parthenon, no Thermopylae was ever built or fought for pay or glory; no Bukhara sacked, or China ground beneath Mongol heel, for loot or power alone.  The payment for doing these things was itself the doing of them.

To wield oneself - to use oneself as a tool in one's own hand - and so to make or break that which no one else can build or ruin - '''that''' is the greatest pleasure known to man!  To one who has felt the chisel in his hand and set free the angel prisoned in the marble block, or to one who has felt sword in hand and set homeless the soul that a moment before lived in the body of his mortal enemy - to those both come alike the taste of that rare food spread only for demons or for gods.

-- ScienceFiction author GordonDickson, in ''Soldier Ask Not''


"You are not a character in a Greek tragedy." -- BattlingArchetypes

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RobertChurch said this: ''And I was trying to help a Coworker solve a problem he was having with his JSP/Servlet program. He didn't like the way the standards wanted him to do something, and also didn't like the hoops he would have to jump through to do anything else.'' -- RobertChurch

It is a particular illustration of how Languages, Standards and Specifications can smother creativity and restrict inventiveness and innovation. It also can make work a chore instead of being "fun".

Dilbert fans might consider this and other "forces and harmonies" by seeing: ''Dilbert: The Joy Of Work'', by Scott Adams. ISBN 0887308953''

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I don't remember the original context of the statement above (I think it came from ChooseYourObjectionableWayOfDoingThings, which is now deleted). I sure don't agree with the idea it's being used to support. Creativity, invention, and innovation have their place, but that place probably isn't in writing a run-of-the-mill boring JSP/Servlet program. In that case, we can take pleasure in craft: get things done simply and correctly and move on.

I do agree with the AnonymousDonor above that oftentimes, standards suck. That's a different problem, in my view. -- RobertChurch