About Winnie the Pooh, Billy the Rabbit and Computer Programs
Overture
How strange it is sometimes that the personalities of fairy-tale heroes, modern technologies and ancient philosophy intersect…
During the Warring States period, a teaching called Taoism emerged in the Celestial Empire. Taoism began to emerge in the 5th century BC. The founder of Taoist philosophy is considered to be the ancient Chinese sage Lao Tzu. A strange personality, semi-mythological. Some modern researchers believe that such a person never existed, while others are less categorical. They reluctantly agree that he did exist, but he could not have written the great book of Taoism, the Tao Te Ching. But one way or another, the book exists, and whoever its author was, he did a good deed by creating this philosophical treatise… However, it can hardly be called a treatise. In the Celestial Empire, everything is not like ours, Europeans, who are accustomed to thoroughness and solidity. If it is poetry, then it is three lines, if it is a word, then it is a picture, if it is a philosophical work, then it is a small book.
Much later, on Christmas Eve 1925, the English writer A. A. Milne first published a short story about the wrong bees in the London Evening News. And in October 1926, the first edition of the book was published, which was loved not only by children, but also by adults and became a bestseller for many years. To this day, each of us fondly remembers the first rapper and the greatest philosopher of our time, Winnie the Pooh (although many give the palm to Hedgehog in the Fog).
Things got even more exciting from there. In 1982, Oregon writer, photographer, composer, and Bachelor of Arts Benjamin Hoff appreciated the philosophical potential of the sawdust-headed bear and wrote the book The Tao of Winnie the Pooh.
At the same time, a young man with the simple name Billy was already building his empire. This was the heyday of the MS DOS operating system. It was in this year that they began to develop the worst nightmare of all layout designers – Microsoft Word. And, oddly enough, at the same time, they were developing a certain window graphical operating system, which everyone already knows.
In the best traditions of a modern adventure novel, the heroes will come together on the pages of this article to intertwine the lines of their destinies, make the reader quite nervous and, finally, lead him to an exciting and unexpected ending.
Characters
Winnie the Pooh is a philosopher and programmer.
Christopher Robin is just a user.
Owl is an advanced user (tech support nightmare).
A rabbit named Billy.
Benjamin Hoff is a man who likes to lie on the floor and sleep.
Lao Tzu is a philosopher who might be surprised to learn that he is a legend.
Act One
Software market news: Russian version of Windows XP translated by Goblin has been released.
So, here we go.
At the beginning of the action, Lao Tzu comes to the edge of the stage to be invisibly present as an observer. He will not lecture or moralize us, but will simply gently remind us with his presence of what each of us knew in childhood, but has already managed to thoroughly forget.
He will remind us that simplicity does not mean stupidity, that the more actively we interfere with the natural order of things, the worse we will do to ourselves and the world around us, the further we will move away from balance and harmony. Ancient people – the children of human civilization – knew what harmony and unity with the world around us were. And this is not at all what a modern person might think, imagining an exotic mixture of ecology and hippie philosophy. Harmony can be achieved in everything, you just need to listen to the voice of your heart.
Harmony can be achieved in both programming and technology. After all, everything that seems to us to be an inanimate world of IT technologies, so far from nature and daisies in a meadow, is in fact also part of a large, diverse world. And Lao Tzu, when he wrote his book, spoke, among other things, about what seems so far from harmony to us, children of a post-industrial society.
Then Christopher Robin appears on the scene. A regular average user without ambitious demands. All he needs from the operating system and application programs is their functionality. The computer is not an end in itself in life for him – it is just a convenient tool for doing necessary work, and sometimes – for entertainment and relaxation. Christopher Robin is a fairly educated person, he knows what fractions are and what elephantopotamuses eat. And of course, he is able to understand a simple interface and will not, like Piglet, look with wide eyes of horror at every error message.
Now let's invite Owl. She jumps on stage from the other side and immediately starts to act smart and bend her fingers (sorry, feathers). She starts to surround herself with the latest models of gadgets and laptops, launch the coolest programs and visit the coolest websites. Owl tries hard to look indifferent, trying to show everyone that she does it casually and leisurely, although even Piglet can see how Owl is bursting with pride at her own coolness. Owl always has the latest and coolest models of all the hardware, the best versions of operating systems and application programs. Owl loves complex, sophisticated software. It's not that she uses all of its functions, most likely she doesn't even know what to do with this whole zoo of programs. But she has the opportunity to proudly declare it to the whole world and look down on everyone else.
“Where is Billy the Rabbit?” you ask. Which side of the stage is he on? And Billy the Rabbit, as always, is where the owls are. After all, Owl is ready to pay big money for her image. Therefore, the more complex the program, the better for Owl. Moreover, Owl does not care how reliable the program is, how well it performs its functions, because Owl most likely will not use them at all, she needs them nominally, so that she can brag and maintain her owl status. And Billy the Rabbit is very smart and quick-witted. He successfully navigated the situation and the market filled with owl buyers.
Christopher Robin, understandably, is not happy with this situation. He needs not just cool programs, but programs that can do what they were written for. And Christopher Robin starts arguing with Owl. Their argument can go on forever. They break spears, shout at each other in forums, and argue their point of view.
And here another character appears on the stage – Winnie the Pooh. He looks around attentively and scratches the back of his head with his plush paw, remaining true to one of the most important principles of Taoism – Wu Wei. We will ask another of our heroes, the respected Taoist Hoff, to explain its meaning. “This principle requires acting non-violently, without forcing others, without pursuing selfish and egoistic goals. It is no coincidence that the word “Wei” is made up of hieroglyphs denoting a clawed paw and a monkey: after all, the principle of “Wu Wei” implies non-interference in the Inner Nature of things, behavior devoid of cunning and greedy aping.” [1].
So, our kind little bear, having carefully looked at all the disputes unfolding around programs and operating systems, makes his choice. And this choice will never fall on those products whose authors constantly increase their complexity to the detriment of reliability and functionality and remake generally accepted standards for themselves. “Only those who do not strive to be ahead of everyone else can free themselves from errors” [3] — wrote Lao Tzu many centuries ago, and he was, as always, damn right.
It is not known whether Niklaus Wirth has read books on Taoism, but he is certainly close to this ancient philosophy: “Ease of use of a system should be the main goal, but this ease should be based on the underlying concepts of the system, which makes it almost intuitive to work with. It seems, however, that more and more people are inclined to misinterpret complexity as sophistication that confuses – and incomprehensibility should arouse suspicion, not admiration. Perhaps this tendency comes from a dubious belief that a somewhat mysterious tool conveys an aura of something supernatural to the user (although what it really “communicates” is a feeling of helplessness, if not impotence). The temptation of complexity as a sales incentive is therefore easy to understand; complexity contributes to maintaining the consumer’s dependence on the supplier.” [2].
Act II
— How much space does the new version of Windows take up?
– And as much as it finds, that much it takes.
Christopher Robin, Owl and Winnie the Pooh once argued about what an operating system should be like. It is true that Winnie the Pooh took an active part in the argument. He had long since gotten used to the fact that no one listened to a bear with sawdust in his head. That is why he did not go to the podium, did not make loud speeches, did not write devastating articles, but simply quietly listened to what smart people were saying.
And smart people said this. Christopher Robin believed that the operating system should be convenient and functional, the rest did not bother him at all. After all, he is one of those people who choose the “Normal” installation configuration in all software packages. He enjoys using the standard functions of the system, carefully writes all the files in the “My Documents” folder and very rarely opens the “Control Panel”. Christopher Robin never thought that it could be different. He never asked himself whether the system is conveniently designed, how it interacts with the “hardware”, how reliable it is. He always carefully read various textbooks and manuals with beautiful pictures and did everything as prescribed. In general, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this. The system works, it performs its functions.
The owl looked at Christopher Robin with disdain. She, as a truly creative person, loved to change and rebuild everything. She never used Explorer – there are much more convenient FAR and Total Commander. And they really are much more convenient. She completely changed the standard design of the system with the help of various special programs. And it really looks more stylish and beautiful than the clumsy rectangular windows. She manually or with the help of additional utilities rewrote the registry keys. And the operating system after that worked faster and more reliably.
And what about our main character? Winnie-the-Pooh was lying under an oak tree, looking at the blue sky and remembering poems. He didn’t remember who wrote them, didn’t understand their meaning very well, but he really liked the beautiful symbols they were written with. One learned man once translated these poems and Winnie liked them so much that they automatically memorized themselves in his plush head, stuffed with sawdust. And the poems were as follows: “Thirty spokes in a wheel converge at a hub, the middle of which is empty, and thanks to this the wheel can be used. / When clay is molded to make a vessel from it, they make it so that the middle is empty, and thanks to this the vessel can be used. / When a house is built, they make windows and doors, leaving the middle empty, and thanks to this the house can be used. / And therefore the filling is what brings income, the emptying is what brings benefit” [3]. And the silly little bear thought: “Or maybe the whole point is that those who write all these big complex programs are more interested in profit than in utility. Maybe if they understand that all these operating systems are just auxiliary programs to ensure the operation of all sorts of hardware and other, more important programs, then maybe they will come up with something really useful.”
Winnie the Pooh had long known from personal experience that no one would listen to a stupid bear, so he simply kept quiet and watched with interest what would happen next. But Nikolaus Wirth decided to share his thoughts on this matter: “…Another important reason responsible for software complexity lies in the “monolithic” design, when all conceivable possibilities are immediately embedded in the system. Each consumer pays for all the possibilities, but actually uses only a few of them. Ideally, only a basic system with essential possibilities embedded in it should be offered, but this system should have the potential for various extensions. Then each consumer could choose the functions that are really necessary for his task.” [2].
Act Three
A true master always works with a slightly dull chisel.
An old Japanese proverb
Christopher Robin, Owl and Winnie the Pooh decided to give a beautiful birthday card to Eeyore. Being educated and advanced individuals, they, of course, took advantage of modern technology.
Christopher Robin chose to go online and download a postcard from the many sites that offer that option. A perfectly reasonable decision. Many of us buy printed postcards for our friends and relatives, and that's not a bad thing. And sometimes the postcards are quite good.
Owl took a different path. As a true creative person, she installed the latest version of Adobe Photoshop. We will not dwell here on how much money Owl spent on purchasing this package and whether this money actually reached the authors of the program. The important thing is that Owl looked very respectable and cool in her own eyes and in the eyes of others. Then began the torment, which is difficult to describe not only in words, but also in poetry. It is not that Owl did not understand the basic capabilities of this application. In general, it is not so difficult to understand what is what. But she had no idea what to do with all this wealth. As a result, she wrote in beautiful letters: “Happy birthday, Owl.” She made a beautiful shadow on the letters. She drew a flower in the center of the card with standard brushes and applied a couple of filters to it. It turned out well.
Winnie the Pooh was a silly bear. He didn't understand all the advantages of the latest Photoshop for creating postcards. He just wanted to draw his native forest and everyone who lives in it, even bees. Although he was a little hesitant about including bees in the overall portrait. He lay in the shade of a large oak tree for a long time and thought over the plot of the picture, and then, when there was very little time left, he opened an old vector editor and sketched out the contours of the future drawing. And then he quickly and carefully colored them. And believe me, if he hadn't had these programs at hand, regular Paint would have been enough for him. Because the main thing is not the capabilities of the tool, but the skill of the author. And strangely enough, a complex tool sometimes simply hinders the author's work with its complexity. People used to know this, but now for some reason they have forgotten. Perhaps they have just become adults. And many years ago it was written: “The wise man avoids the excessive, gets rid of the superfluous, does not strive for great abundance.” [3]. But at the same time, a true Taoist always remembers that “To observe moderation does not mean to limit oneself like a miser, but means to do it gradually, as if in secret from oneself.” [3].
Act Four
If architects built buildings the way programmers write programs, the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.
Few people know that Winnie the Pooh is not only a user, but also a good programmer. Perhaps he himself does not fully realize it. How can a stupid lazy bear, who occasionally writes programs in an outdated programming language, call himself a programmer? How can he compare to the cool Owl, who proudly calls herself a “cherry” (Piglet was initially very scared of this word, thinking that Owl was constantly proudly declaring that she was a predator) and is proud of the fact that she knows a lot of cool technologies? And he cannot reach Christopher Robin, because he has long been churning out software for some office in Visual Basic. In general, Winnie the Pooh did not consider himself a programmer at all. He just sometimes wrote programs for fun.
When he had another task to complete, but for which he had no corresponding applications, he habitually went online and looked for the program he needed. Usually he found it, and not just one. But every time he launched such programs, he recalled Christopher Robin's expression: “Shooting a cannon at sparrows.” True, this was said for a completely different reason, when Owl got the idea to bring a Kamaz concrete mixer to repair Eeyore's house, but Winnie-the-Pooh thought that this expression was quite suitable here too. Therefore, the bear cub often wanted to simply write his own programs and not bother with other people's.
He never tried to make them complex and multifunctional, because he wrote these programs for himself and knew exactly what he needed from them. He did not need to add multilingual support to the programs, because he himself knew exactly what language he spoke. There was absolutely no need for different design options – he just immediately designed the program to his taste.
He never created installation packages for his programs. There was simply no need for this, because Vinnie himself knew perfectly well where he needed to copy his program. In addition, he very rarely wrote programs that would write their keys to the registry. All his programs carefully saved the settings in regular INI files in the same directory where the program's executable file was located.
The stupid little bear did not use coding or any modern methods of protecting information. He simply had no one to hide information from. He used his computer alone. True, he sometimes let Piglet play solitaire on it, but he was hardly interested in the little bear's work files.
He didn't force his programs on anyone. He simply carefully posted them on his website, describing their main features. He never advertised them in various file archives, and it would never have occurred to him to compare them with competitors' programs. And he didn't particularly focus on competitors, because he wasn't competing with anyone. It was just that silly Winnie the Pooh wrote programs for himself and posted them on the Internet, because one day the idea came into his plush head that these programs might be useful to someone else.
This is how strange a programmer Winnie the Pooh was. The silly little bear hardly read the words spoken many centuries before his birth: “Implement what does not yet exist, manage what does not yet resist. […] Think of difficult things as simple and natural, perceive everything great as simple and accessible. […] If people stop being clever and abandon cleverness, their benefit will increase a hundredfold. […] “In simplicity and naturalness lies the basis of strength” [3].
All that remains is to wish success to Winnie-the-Poohs, because “A tree as thick as a girth will grow from a tiny seed. A tower nine stories high will grow from a heap of earth. A journey a thousand miles long begins beneath your feet.” And there are so few stupid bears left in our world.
Epilogue
Many centuries have passed since the book Tao Te Ching was written. Many modern authors turn to the idea of applying Taoist philosophy to modern science and technology. And every time, reading articles on such topics, you are surprised at how accurately modern technical problems are described with the help of ancient Eastern philosophy. And not just described, but also solved, easily and elegantly. After all, the solution to many seemingly serious and difficult to solve problems lies on the surface, you just need to stop for a minute, think and look at things from a different angle, from the point of view of a stupid teddy bear.
This article was first published in Computerra magazine on June 27, 2006.
Literature
Benjamin Hoff. The Tao of Winnie the Pooh: [эссе] / [пер. с англ. Л.Высоцкого]. — SPb.: Amphora, 2004.
Niklaus Wirth. Down with “fat” programs // “Open Systems”, No. 06, 1996. https://www.osp.ru/os/1996/06/179017
Lao Tzu. Tao Te Ching. Translation by Alexander Kuvshinov. http://www.lib.ru/POECHIN/lao3.txt
John Alsopp. The Tao of web design.
Fritjof Capra. The Tao of Physics.
Oleg Efremov. Tao Te Ching and photography.
