This guy's an inspiration to me, as he's someone who's not a programmer yet still contributes to open source software development. That's one of my eventual goals, once I free up enough time in my...
Exemplary
This guy's an inspiration to me, as he's someone who's not a programmer yet still contributes to open source software development. That's one of my eventual goals, once I free up enough time in my life to be able to pursue passion projects again. Much like him, I can't code, but I can write, so hopefully I can find my niche, as he seems to have found his.
I think his points about unappreciative users have a lot of resonance, and not just in the emulation community. The internet at large often feels like one big unhappy stormcloud, and it feels like complaining and a lack of appreciation are endemic. Criticism seems to be our default state.
I don't know what to do about it other than to try to be more appreciative in my own life and make it visible to others. After all, I'm as susceptible as anyone to the allure of unending outrage and critique, and I feel like I should take steps to counterbalance that.
I'm reminded of a mindfulness seminar I attended. During one particular session, the leader walked us through an appreciation meditation. It started with us thinking about how the chair we were sitting in had been created by someone. It had been designed by someone. Someone had processed the raw materials used to make it. Someone had constructed it. Someone had brought it to the room we were in. And someone, myself, was sitting in it.
He said that it's common to sit down in a chair and think about its issues--this one wobbles, the seat is too hard, the backrest doesn't fit me, etc. In focusing on the issues, we forget that the chair is there in the first place, and that it's not there by accident. It's there because of people, and in appreciating the chair, even in its imperfect state, we're appreciating the people whose efforts brought the chair into being in the first place. If it's good enough for me to sit in, that means it's worth something--otherwise I would have sat on the floor!
He then expanded this thinking to bring appreciation to other items in the room. The fan, circulating air on a hot day. Our clothes. The glasses that help me see things clearly. He then expanded it to the room itself, then the building. His basic message was that the efforts of people are behind nearly everything in our lives, and too often we lose sight of that. I know I do. It was a powerful seminar that conveyed a valuable mindset, and I'd pretty much forgotten about it until something in this article sparked its memory.
"Remember the human" gets used as a reminder for civility in online discussions, but I think it has further application. The games, software, articles, even online comments we engage with all have humans behind them, and all are the product of effort on their behalf. Furthermore, all of these people are fundamentally imperfect and have created fundamentally imperfect things, but they have channeled their productivity towards something meaningful, and that's worth celebrating.
This doesn't mean we can't or should critique things, and it doesn't mean all efforts should be celebrated, but that, by and large, most effort is treated as invisible while its imperfections are brought into sharp focus. That's not a healthy relationship to have with the things we love and spend our time on, and I think I need to step up my gratitude game so that I better appreciate the things I love and spend time on--even in spite of their issues.
It's funny, yesterday I was pressing some bearings into some spare hubs for my car and was thinking about the last guy who worked on them was probably a factory worker 20 years ago and he was...
It's funny, yesterday I was pressing some bearings into some spare hubs for my car and was thinking about the last guy who worked on them was probably a factory worker 20 years ago and he was probably just thinking about stuff from 20 years ago, he was going to go home and play PlayStation and probably heard at least one bill Clinton joke on his cigarette break. Those bearings probably went 150 thousand miles before they went to the junkyard and I threw them in the trash. I wasn't mad at the bearings for being worn out, I just needed the hubs and it doesn't make sense not to replace the bearings.
One of my friends recently asked me why I'm constantly messing with broken things ( I'm forever buying broken items for a fraction of their real value) and I really didn't have an answer ( other than I'm a cheap bastard) but I do love and appreciate the process of learning and fixing everyday objects and I wish more people would take the time to explore things instead of saying it's a waste of time to fix things.
That was a cool read. Very enlightening as to the issues various projects deal with, and also explained some issues I've seen the effect of with third party emulator builds, particularly as a user...
That was a cool read. Very enlightening as to the issues various projects deal with, and also explained some issues I've seen the effect of with third party emulator builds, particularly as a user who favors upstream versions of open source emulators.
This guy's an inspiration to me, as he's someone who's not a programmer yet still contributes to open source software development. That's one of my eventual goals, once I free up enough time in my life to be able to pursue passion projects again. Much like him, I can't code, but I can write, so hopefully I can find my niche, as he seems to have found his.
I think his points about unappreciative users have a lot of resonance, and not just in the emulation community. The internet at large often feels like one big unhappy stormcloud, and it feels like complaining and a lack of appreciation are endemic. Criticism seems to be our default state.
I don't know what to do about it other than to try to be more appreciative in my own life and make it visible to others. After all, I'm as susceptible as anyone to the allure of unending outrage and critique, and I feel like I should take steps to counterbalance that.
I'm reminded of a mindfulness seminar I attended. During one particular session, the leader walked us through an appreciation meditation. It started with us thinking about how the chair we were sitting in had been created by someone. It had been designed by someone. Someone had processed the raw materials used to make it. Someone had constructed it. Someone had brought it to the room we were in. And someone, myself, was sitting in it.
He said that it's common to sit down in a chair and think about its issues--this one wobbles, the seat is too hard, the backrest doesn't fit me, etc. In focusing on the issues, we forget that the chair is there in the first place, and that it's not there by accident. It's there because of people, and in appreciating the chair, even in its imperfect state, we're appreciating the people whose efforts brought the chair into being in the first place. If it's good enough for me to sit in, that means it's worth something--otherwise I would have sat on the floor!
He then expanded this thinking to bring appreciation to other items in the room. The fan, circulating air on a hot day. Our clothes. The glasses that help me see things clearly. He then expanded it to the room itself, then the building. His basic message was that the efforts of people are behind nearly everything in our lives, and too often we lose sight of that. I know I do. It was a powerful seminar that conveyed a valuable mindset, and I'd pretty much forgotten about it until something in this article sparked its memory.
"Remember the human" gets used as a reminder for civility in online discussions, but I think it has further application. The games, software, articles, even online comments we engage with all have humans behind them, and all are the product of effort on their behalf. Furthermore, all of these people are fundamentally imperfect and have created fundamentally imperfect things, but they have channeled their productivity towards something meaningful, and that's worth celebrating.
This doesn't mean we can't or should critique things, and it doesn't mean all efforts should be celebrated, but that, by and large, most effort is treated as invisible while its imperfections are brought into sharp focus. That's not a healthy relationship to have with the things we love and spend our time on, and I think I need to step up my gratitude game so that I better appreciate the things I love and spend time on--even in spite of their issues.
It's funny, yesterday I was pressing some bearings into some spare hubs for my car and was thinking about the last guy who worked on them was probably a factory worker 20 years ago and he was probably just thinking about stuff from 20 years ago, he was going to go home and play PlayStation and probably heard at least one bill Clinton joke on his cigarette break. Those bearings probably went 150 thousand miles before they went to the junkyard and I threw them in the trash. I wasn't mad at the bearings for being worn out, I just needed the hubs and it doesn't make sense not to replace the bearings.
One of my friends recently asked me why I'm constantly messing with broken things ( I'm forever buying broken items for a fraction of their real value) and I really didn't have an answer ( other than I'm a cheap bastard) but I do love and appreciate the process of learning and fixing everyday objects and I wish more people would take the time to explore things instead of saying it's a waste of time to fix things.
That was a cool read. Very enlightening as to the issues various projects deal with, and also explained some issues I've seen the effect of with third party emulator builds, particularly as a user who favors upstream versions of open source emulators.
The perspective in Cemu was interesting, as well.