There is only one thing more painful than learning from
experience and that is not learning from experience.

– Archibald MacLeish

Haven’t blogged on my progress in a few days; been busy reading through the list of interesting papers I’ve gathered during the past few weeks. Some low-level stuff, such as the principles behind SAFE, a static analysis tool for Java programs, and then some higher level topics, such as Agile software development and quality, and whether the two go hand in hand.

A lot of new concepts to wrap my head around. Doing some research after working on a semi-legacy system (aren’t they all…) for the last year is absolutely refreshing. I’m hoping to start the actual writing process (and refresh my LaTeX skills) next week: most of the initial text will probably end up in the trash can, but I really need to get into the whole business of writing after a longish break.

I’ll probably write my thesis in English, which is generally frowned upon at my department: you need to have good reason to divert from using Finnish. But since the paper is related to a work project that’s in turn related to something with international ties, I believe I have a just cause for using English. And it’s always good to have a larger potential audience for whatever I come up with. Plus, I hate writing technical stuff in Finnish, since you’re always faced with having a cutting-edge technical term that has no Finnish counterpart, and end up with a self-translated substitute, or using the original term within a sentence that’s in Finnish otherwise: I don’t like either of the two options.

Btw, the title of this entry is subliminal message for you all to go and read a book of the same name by Stephen King: a piece on writing and being a writer, but also one hell of an autobiography (I’m not a writer, nor do I claim to be, but I thoroughly enjoyed the book, so don’t be frightened by the name!)