The Night Watch (2013) [pdf]

There will always be someone at a lower level than you. As a systems programmer he pokes fun at UX people. It is indeed hilarious. But technology and science is all about collaboration and building on other people's work. Remember that a generation ago nobody could be expected to use a program successfully without reading documentation first, and this even included most games. The proliferation of computers into the hands of everybody at your local bus stop is as much…

"if you find yourself drinking a martini and writing programs in garbage-collected, object-oriented Esperanto, be aware that the only reason that the Esperanto runtime works is because there are systems people who have exchanged any hope of losing their virginity for the exciting opportunity to think about hex numbers and their relationships with the operating system, the hardware, and ancient blood rituals that Bjarne Stroustrup performed at Stonehenge" So true, so funny. Also, this article subtly conveys the…

> The systems programmer has read the kernel source, to better understand the deep ways of the universe, and the systems programmer has seen the comment in the scheduler that says “DOES THIS WORK LOL,” and the systems programmer has wept instead of LOLed Chef's kiss.

James Mickens is a national treasure. Go watch his talks on YouTube and read everything he writes. https://mickens.seas.harvard.edu/ Excellence. Quality. Science. These are just a few of the words that have been applied to the illustrious research career of James Mickens. In the span of a few years, James Mickens has made deep, fundamental, and amazing contributions to various areas of computer science and life. Widely acknowledged as one of the greatest scholars of his generation, James Mickens ran out…