Monday is a hard walk. My feet hurt, the trail is rocky and slow, the air hot and sticky. It's a perfect day for the swarms of mosquitoes, and the shelter last night was located in a mosquito bog. It's a good day to turn the mind to something else.
A week ago I noticed that I can swat the gnats buzzing my face and hit them in mid-air. Some gnats learn that they almost got killed and fly away, leaving me alone. Other gnats learn that they don't get injured even if I hit them and fly right back in my face.
I see a young boy slip on the muddy trail. His mother quickly says, "I hope you learned your lesson". Which lesson? That it is fun to run down the trail, and doesn't hurt much if you fall? Or not to ever run?
Early on this hike I slipped and fell in a creek. I had stepped cautiously out to a wet stone. I learned my lesson: other hikers were less cautious and just jumped over the whole stream.
In software development failure is fairly common. Typically either it didn't really meet the user's need, or at the end the various pieces don't work well together. The newer approach is to do just one little thing, integrate it into the full system and let users play with it. Fail fast and learn.
Generally the lesson is to just jump in and try, and then if something didn't work and didn't seem too catastrophic, then just try it again. Maybe with more gusto, maybe with a better technique. But try it again.
I hope the little boy learned his lesson.
17.9 miles to High Point State Park entrance.
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