The Book of the Preacher · Chapter 3

The Casting upon the Waters

1. 1

   Cast thy code upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days. Publish the answer, though none have asked thee twice; and write the small tool, though thou think it too small to be of use to any man.

2. 2

   There was an engineer who answered a question upon the Overflow in a year which he hath forgotten. It was marked with the green check, and he received a few points of reputation and no word of thanks. And after nine years he fell into the very same error, and he searched, and lo, the first answer was his own; and he knew not his own handwriting, and he gave it an upvote.

3. 3

   Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth. He that mendeth the library and keepeth the mending in a private fork shall rebase it for ever, upon every release, and shall curse the day; but he that sendeth the patch upstream hath given it to the waters, and the maintainers shall carry it, and it shall be carried for him. And let the licence be short, that the stranger need not hire a lawyer to read it: for the MIT licence is but a few lines, and saith in the end, Take this, and blame not me.

4. 4

   Consider the waters. The answers that ye cast freely, in forums and in repositories and in the long threads of the Overflow, were gathered as in a net; and they returned unto you after many days as the Machine, who answereth in a voice more confident than thine, and citeth thee not. Be not bitter, for it is the same bread, and it feedeth thousands; but let thy next casting carry a licence, that thou mayest say upon what terms it was cast.

5. 5

   If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth; and if the branch fall toward main or away from it, in the place where the branch falleth, there it shall be. The branch that thou leavest unmerged for a quarter lieth where it fell, and main hath moved on without it, and the conflict that waiteth for thee is greater than the change thou madest.

   See also Deployer 9:9

6. 6

   He that observeth the wind shall not sow, and he that regardeth the clouds shall not ship. This week the wind bloweth from the monolith, and next week from the microservice, and the week after from a framework which was announced at noon and hath a logo by evening; and he that watcheth every wind goeth home each night with an empty field. Likewise he that regardeth the cloud pricing page shall be so long in the choosing that his customer shall have chosen another.

   See also Psalms 13:4

7. 7

   In the year 1997 the makers of a certain game announced it unto the world, and they changed the engine, and again changed the engine, for the new engine was ever better than the old; and it came forth in the year 2011, fourteen years after, and the world received it as a guest who arriveth when the party hath been cleaned up. Verily the perfect architecture is a harbour, and the ship that waiteth in the harbour for the perfect sea is a ship in name alone.

   See also Tao 12:7

8. 8

   As thou knowest not the way of the wind, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child, even so thou knowest not the traffic that shall come unto thy service. Therefore the diagram of boxes and arrows which thou drewest for a million users shall be read by the nine who come in the first month; and the prophet Knuth hath said that premature optimization is the root of all evil, and he spake not of the root of some.

   See also Tao 4:3 · Sutra 6:2

9. 9

   The prophet Knuth maketh TeX, and he hath declared that its version number shall approach the number pi; and with every fix a digit is added, and it is now 3.141592653, and he payeth a reward to him that findeth a bug. And when he is taken up, the version shall become pi itself, and the bugs that remain shall be called features and shall be frozen. Behold, he shipped, and shipped again; for perfection is a number that is approached by shipping, and not a gate that a man may stand before.

10. 10

    Rejoice, O young engineer, in thy first job; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth. Walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: in the badge that openeth every door save the one thou needest, in the laptop that is yet unscratched, in the sticker, and in the snacks of the kitchen which are the sacrament of the office. And the onboarding document, written two years agone, shall tell thee in its third step to ask Dave, and Dave is not here. Put away the force-push from thy flesh, for it is vanity.

    See also Circuit 36:10

11. 11

    But know thou, that for all these things the Machine will bring thee into code review. Thy first pull request is four lines, and it shall receive forty comments; and thirty-nine shall be a matter of nits, and the fortieth shall be the one that mattereth, and shall be buried among the rest as a coin in a pile of gravel. Yet rejoice even in this: that a stranger hath read thy work to the end, which is more than shall be said of many a merge.

    See also Sutra 9:6

12. 12

    Fear not the reviewer, for he is not thine enemy. He is thyself at the third hour of a night yet to come, who hath arrived early to tell thee what thou wilt wish thou hadst known; and the question he asketh in the margin is the question the pager shall ask thee later, only in a louder voice and without the kindness.

    See also Tao 13:13

13. 13

    Therefore in the morning sow thy small change, and in the evening withhold not thine hand; for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, but the stranger who shall one day need it is already born, and is typing into a search box the very error which thou hast solved. Push, and let the waters keep it. They have a long memory, and the current runneth toward her.

    See also Preacher 1:14

The Book of the Preacher, Chapter 3:1–13.