TITLE: Conscience and Clarity
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: October 15, 2009  5:22 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
I've been working on a jumble of administrative duties
all week long, with an eye toward the weekend.  While
cleaning up some old files, I ran across three items
that struck me as somehow related, at least in the
context of the last few days.

<EM>Listen to Your Conscience</EM>

Here's a great quote from an
<A HREF="http://daringfireball.net/2006/01/smart_crash_reports">
   old article</A>
by John Gruber:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
If you think your users would be turned off by an accurate
description of something, that doesn't mean you should do
it without telling them.  It means means you shouldn't be
doing whatever it is you don't want to tell them about.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

This advice applies to so many different circumstances.
It's not bulletproof, but it's worth being the first
line of thought whenever your conscience starts to gnaw
at you.

<EM>Listen With Your Heart</EM>

And here's a passage on writing from the great Joni
Mitchell:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
You could write a song about some kind of emotional problem
you are having, but it would not be a good song, in my eyes,
until it went through a period of sensitivity to a moment of
clarity.  Without that moment of clarity to contribute to the
song, it's just complaining.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

This captures quite nicely one of the difficulties I have
with blogging about being a department head:  I rarely
seem to have that moment of clarity.  And I need them,
even if I don't intend to blog about the experience.

<EM>Somebody Must Be Listening</EM>

One piece of nice news...  I recently received a message
saying that Knowing and Doing has been included in a list
of the
<A HREF="http://www.onlinecollege.org/2009/10/12/100-best-professors-who-blog/">
   top 100 blogs by professors</A>
on an on-line learning web site.  There are a lot of
great blogs on that list, and it's an honor to be
included among them.  I follow a dozen or so of those
blogs closely.  One that some of my readers might not
be familiar with is
<A HREF="http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/">
   Marginal Revolution</A>,
which looks at the world through the lens of an
economist.

If I could add only one blog to that list, right now it
would be
<A HREF="http://www.johndcook.com/blog/">
   The Endeavour</A>,
John Cook's blog on software, math, and science.  I learn
a lot from the connections he makes.

In any case, it's good to know that readers find some
measure of value here, too.  I'll keep watching for
the moments of clarity about CS, software development,
teaching, running, and life that signal a worthwhile
blog entry.
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