Ryan Koven

Touchdown.

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Leviathan, Inc.

Wouldst thou work for Leviathan?
Wouldst thou sit among the minds
that pierce the blind eye of ignorance
with the needle of truth?

Canst thou deny Leviathan’s reach?
His scale is his pride, he hugs the
globe airtight– no thought or word
can slip his warm embrace.

Wilt thou think with Leviathan?
He esteemeth only those minds
of the firmest intelligence:
Art thou a master of hard thought?

Wilt thou play with Leviathan?
And take your place among
the luminous youth that live
forever in the light of truth?

Wilt thou accept his bounty?
To be a servant to truth is to
bathe in gold. He owns all you
behold between sky and earth.

Wouldst thou work for Leviathan?
He will make a covenant with thee:
Give him your life and your work and
you will feel the light of the future.

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The Joy of Debugging (or: Finding Out How Things Don’t Work)

Writing, whether it’s natural language or a programming language, is hard. Typos, misused and misspelled words, mangled syntax, a lack of clarity: debugging computer code, like proofreading and editing a natural language narrative, is the art of removing– or at least smoothing– these issues. But as your programs become more complex and start talking to other programs over a network, debugging evolves into a journey of discovery through a system of interconnected programs and resources.

A relentless, plodding mediocrity1 has a significant advantage over a lazy “genius” when it comes to debugging. Tenacity, curiosity, a comfort in knowing that things happen for a reason in the computer world, and a willingness to methodically follow the bug through a system are the virtues that make one good at debugging.

It’s the plodding and following that make debugging a daunting though...

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