2023-04-11

• I was working with my brother on helping him learn to code. We have been working thorugh an introductory online textbook of sorts that focuses on Python. It’s a good resource. It has many example programs that my brother dutifully rewrites and runs in his editor. During one such practice program, my brother indicated that he felt kind of bad that we were spending time on such simple programs. I reassured him that I had no problem with it. And, in fact, spending time on the simple programs was very useful for both of us. You have to write the programs you are capable of writing. By definition, those are the programs you should write. Sometimes those programs are “hello world,” other times it could be something more complicated. I struggle with remembering that idea, “sometimes you really do need to just write the ‘hello world’ program.” And so it was a good reminder of an important idea. In particular, it’s a helpful reminder as I once again try to learn how to make music with a midi keyboard. I am a true novice, which is humbling and often uncomfortable. In that domain, I really do need to practice writing ‘hello world’ programs. Hopefully, I’ll remember this exchange with my brother next time I find myself pushing to do more than I am ready for.

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