Talk:Hacker koan

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Presumably...[edit]

“ So Sussman began working on a program. Not long after, this odd-looking bald guy came over. Sussman figured the guy was going to boot him out, but instead the man sat down, asking, "Hey, what are you doing?" Sussman talked over his program with the man, Marvin Minsky. At one point in the discussion, Sussman told Minsky that he was using a certain randomizing technique in his program because he didn't want the machine to have any preconceived notions. Minsky said, "Well, it has them, it's just that you don't know what they are." It was the most profound thing Gerry Sussman had ever heard. And Minsky continued, telling him that the world is built a certain way, and the most important thing we can do with the world is avoid randomness, and figure out ways by which things can be planned. Wisdom like this has its effect on seventeen-year-old freshmen, and from then on Sussman was hooked.

Mr. Sussman might have pursued his goal by repeating the experiment with a large number of randomly generating starting networks. Better yet, Sussman could have developed the tools to predict the average (according to some as yet undefined notion of average) outcome for an infinite number of such cases.

This so-called humourous koan carries a significant meaning. Sussman misunderstanding is surprising.

--Philopedia (talk) 03:08, 17 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The Codeless Code[edit]

I noticed today (via Google Analytics) that this page has an external link to "The Codeless Code" (my site), apparently put there by User:Gwern in July 2012. Would anyone object if I add the following text to the "Collections" section?

Another collection of hacker fables, some of which are written in the style or spirit of Zen koans, may be found at The Codeless Code (^2). It features purely fictional characters (mostly masters and monks) in a quasi-Far-Eastern setting. The stories explore topics related to modern software development. The name for this site is also a reference to The Gateless Gate.

(It feels like a slight conflict of interest for me to propose this, but as I said, the link is already there...) — Preceding unsigned comment added by QilessQi (talk • contribs) 00:38, 7 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]