Musings from an almost-retired prof – The Craft of Coding

Academia implies and requires a disciplined way of approaching a subject. I stand at the very opposite end. My computer engagement has not been subject to such structure and demands. I have only been engaging recreationally—it is my main spare time interest.

I benefit from the crude experience of reviewing my past and seeing almost all my computer-related projects have vaporized as fading memories. Even that colorful ASCII art I made in DOS in the '90s which I wish I kept for nostalgia, is gone. Why didn't I at least have the structured intention to archive things—seriously—I ask myself.

It is easy to be regretful, but their vaporization helps me see these things have little inherent value to my aging self. Being in my forties, I still have a glowing interest for my own projects—and my projects are many. However, in the darkness of the crude awakening to reality, and looking both back and forward 20 years, I have a deep sense these projects of today don't matter as much as I feel they do right now. There comes an "after".

This opens to existential questions, but my answer doesn't lie in that realm. Such answers and convictions are a bonus, but I know that aging mercilessly also takes away such convictions in the agony and the overpowering process of aging. My answer to what the crucial things are, is...

I work in the field of health care and I am daily close witness to the possible adversity of aging and old age. What I have come to see is that the most crucial thing is... to keep your mobility of body and mind as far as you can. Guard and cultivate your long term health.

My neighbor died in his sleep at 87. The same year he would be out painting the house. That's the end I aspire. Stay motivated fighting every second while being here. The fighting, and for the sake of it, gives me a sense of meaning that transcends every past achievement or lack thereof.