# Joy & Curiosity #6 *Interesting & joyful things from the previous week* By Thorsten Ball • September 7, 2024 --- I’m going to try something new again. This Register Spill consists of *only* the Joy & Curiosity section. Why? I want some writing time back for other side-projects, but I also think the writing might get better of it’s not on a weekly schedule. I’ve also really enjoyed compiling a list of links, so let’s focus on that for a while. --- - Somehow I ended up reading about [Apple’s Presto machines](https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/27/24113561/apple-retail-presto-iphone-update-machine): machines that can update iPhones while they’re still in the box. This [again](https://registerspill.thorstenball.com/p/a-feat-of-engineering) is an easy-to-miss sentence that only makes you pause when you really think about it. How do you update iPhones *in boxes*, while they’re *not even turned on*? I found some[more information here](https://9to5mac.com/2024/04/05/apples-presto-system-in-detail/) — fascinating stuff. - [This post by Tim O’Reilly](https://www.oreilly.com/radar/how-i-failed/) (of animals-on-the-covers O’Reilly books) made the rounds this week and I re-read it — again. It’s one of the realest things I’ve ever read on building a company, a *business*. O’Reilly: “One of my big mistakes was to let people build products, or do marketing, without forcing them to understand the financial impact of their decisions. This is flying blind — like turning them loose in an automobile without a speedometer or a fuel gauge.” While reading, keep in mind that this is from *2013*! Pre-ZIRP, if you will. And yet. - I’m going to reference [this tweet](https://x.com/economeager/status/1830271859671327153) in the future when someone asks whether it’s worth learning or understanding something that one might not use in their day-to-day: “knowing about architecture means buildings are legible in a different way; knowing about plants and birds makes hikes more stimulating, playing music makes listening to it richer, etc” - Thanks to [this Pragmatic Engineer post](https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/paying-down-tech-debt) I re-read [Joel Spolky’s Things You Should Never Do - Part 1](https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-never-do-part-i/), the classic post in which he argues that one should never do a big rewrite. It’s been a while since I last read it. This time, the following section jumped out at me: “Programmers are, in their hearts, architects, and the first thing they want to do when they get to a site is to bulldoze the place flat and build something grand. We’re not excited by incremental renovation: tinkering, improving, planting flower beds.” My immediate reaction was: *but I love incremental renovation and tinkering and improving and tweaking and fiddling and listening to the engine!* - Paul Graham published a new essay. It’s called [Founder Mode](https://paulgraham.com/foundermode.html) and I enjoyed it. What I found interesting: it seems to be yet another sign that the tide is shifting, that the previous 10 years are coming to a close. And every time I think about that tide, I wonder whether it will also take away the idea that it’s worthwhile to [emulate Google](https://abseil.io/resources/swe-book), even if you don’t have a money fountain in your company. - Kent Beck published [something in response to the Graham essay](https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/the-founder-mode-tradeoff) and that too is an interesting read. What stuck with me was something orthogonal to his main point, a small side-observation really. Beck writes about decisions by CEOs: “Each decision has 2 outputs. (1) The consequences of the decision itself. (2) A new organization more or less prepared to make the next decision.” — how interesting is that (2) point? What a lens to look through! - I was talking to a younger colleague this week about stock options and forwarded him the [all-time classic about stock options by Julia Evans](https://jvns.ca/blog/2015/12/30/do-the-math-on-your-stock-options/). I also realized that (1) I know quite a lot about stock options compared to, say, 5 years ago and (2) I bet that the single most-helpful thing I ever read on business and stock options was Phil Knight’s memoir [Shoe Dog](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe_Dog). - Last week I was talking to [Dave](https://davidbalbert.notion.site/Hire-David-Albert-47686f4e44a44295bb6f2f2b375a4637) and I got lucky because we both realized Dave didn’t know about the [Qlobe](https://mamememo.blogspot.com/2010/09/qlobe.html): a quine (a program that prints itself) that prints itself as a globe and each time you run it (and thus print it) it rotates the globe. My recommendation to you: clone it from [here](https://github.com/knoxknox/qlobe), run it in the terminal, smile. [![](https://archive.thorstenball.com/data/images/148604342.joy-and-curiosity-70/2ea85961-61cf-42d2-8ce2-f652795a2992_800x536.gif)](https://archive.thorstenball.com/data/images/148604342.joy-and-curiosity-70/2ea85961-61cf-42d2-8ce2-f652795a2992_800x536.gif) ---