Human Development - kind of

So somehow I went from wherever I was as a young guy to this worn out husk who had to deal with with raising six kids. Was nothing I planned to do, but, well, there it is.

That's not the point - it's just to give you my credentials, assert my authority, bolster my claims, etc etc.

This first point is that I'm writing from my experience - not text book theory or some other academic point of view [I have those also, but not about kids]

Here's the Second Point:

When a kid is just born, they don't do a lot and the way they interact is really different from how they are later on. They're kind of like little animals that just crawl or run around. They don't really argue about anything. Their complaints are very personal and immediate - hungry, wet, cold, lonesome, tired.

After a couple of years something happens. You've been going along saying things like: Please don't do that or Please do this - and almost getting used to the fact that they never really pay much attention and don't seem to remember what you said from one second to the next. But then the thing happens: the kid turns around and looks you straight in the eye and says - very firmly and usually pretty loudly - "NO"!

This is a major breakthrough.

The kid hasn't turned into a monster or become a 'Terrible Two' (as I was told by my mother, over and over again). The kid just now finally noticed that you're trying to get him (or her) to do something that wasn't what he wanted to do.

That's the point when you can finally start teaching the kid how to 'not get run over by a car' and 'to clean your plate' and 'to pick up your toys'. It won't work - at least not for the first 10 or 20 years - but you can now get started and be (relatively) happy with the knowledge that you're not just being ignored. You're being Actively ignored and - believe it or not - all of you talking, pleading, reasoning, and (most of all) the example you set is sinking into that little mind.

After mulling this over for a bunch of years - I've come to the conclusion that this is a pivotal point in all of our developments. It's the point where we realize that we live in a context over which we do not have total control and with which we must learn to interact.

And for a Third Point:

Lora (we're married and four of the kids are her fault) is a certified Montessori method pre-primary instructor. She went to school for a year, did a year internship, read all of Montessori's books and practiced on our kids. Turns out that's enough for her - she prefers ponies and dogs to humans.

Anyway, she has creds as well.

Montessori discovered - by observing kids - that kids go through various phases of development where they are really different. She called them sensitive periods and it's fascinating stuff.

But - to get to the point - there's one thing I wanted to write about here. It's the thing which happens when the fish in the classroom fish tank dies.

The pre-primary Montessori classes have kids in the 3 to 5/6 year range. They generally have a fish tank. At some time during the year one or more of the fish will die.

Here's where it gets interesting.

The kids come in and quickly divide into two groups.

The younger kids look at the fish and say 'the fish is dead' and then go do something.

The older kids look at the fish and say 'the fish is dead. I wonder why the fish died. Was the water too hot? Was it too cold? Did another fish kill it? Wasn't the food right? I think that ...'

You get the difference?

Before something changes, it's ok to just see the dead fish and register it as a fact.

After 'the change' we have to 'know Why'.

I think this is the origin of Why.

You should listen to some of the silly 'reasons' 5 and 6 year old kids come up with. Their logic is not all that bad, but the 'facts' they start from are pretty lame. But that makes sense because the don't have much experience.

So do that for a while - - - and then - if you're brave - listen to some of your friends and neighbors talking about stuff. Things like 'the problem with ... is ... because ...'

When I started listening to adults and comparing it with the stuff 5 and 6 year olds come up with, I got really upset. It's the same stuff!!!

I think everybody is acting like 6 year olds - including the guys who run the countries and big companies.

Doesn't that explain a lot of what's going on?

I'm telling you - the problem is the whole thing is being run by 6 year olds and that's why nothing works. The answer is . . .

ORM or Not? Part Two - Definitely Not

Maybe that's a little too harsh - but I don't think so.

Here's the background:

One of the biggest recurring programming problems I've had to deal with in site and application development has been - (drum roll) - developing the database. Not populating it - that's just boring. Developing and refining the data definitions.

The "Conventional Wisdom" promulgated by Software Gurus is basically this:

1. Databases are Good With Data
2. Data Objects Are Good With Data
3. A Programmer Must Define a Mapping Between these Two Good Things and then All Will Be Good

Not my experience.

Software Gurus don't write application. Software Gurus write Books and (occasionally) toy examples. So they really don't understand that Good does not generalize because the Good that Databases are with data is all about safety and accessing it in great and small piles. The Good that Data Objects are about is manipulation, fine structure, and flexibility.

My experience with Object Relational Data Mapping - which is just a fancy phrase for how you get the data from the database into an object and back - is this: when I Did it Their Way, I had to hand-coordinate both my Objects and my Database.

So when I wanted to add a field or change a field or change a datatype, I had to do everything twice.

Now Rails has Active Record - which is a stupid Software Guru name for an ORM which creates the Data Objects automatically (my drivers license is an active record - meaning it's current so I can legally drive), but that doesn't 'solve the problem' it just moves it. [maybe Rails 3 is smarter,
I dropped out just as Rails 2 was coming out]

Specifically, the Rails solution moved the problem to 'migrations' which turned out to be fragile. I know: I tried it.

So, a couple of years ago I proposed Not building an ORM, but rather loosening the coupling between the Database and the Data Objects.

Here's what I've done:

1. Defined an PHP class which implements a data abstraction which includes most of the types of data and methods I want in my CMS [see http://www.yasitekit.org] and knows how to map those data types into database fields. It also knows how to create the database structures, create, update, delete, and retrieve those values.
2. Defined a PHP class which makes it easy (relatively speaking) to create objects which are instances of the data abstraction class. These classes come with a bunch of methods which I've found useful as well as a management class which automatically provides interactive data administration.
3. Some automated analysis tools which work with this stuff so it's possible - and relatively painless and safe - to add, delete, and modify the derived objects (point 2) and reload the database. All done by hacking the derived PHP objects, but never ever touching SQL.
4. As a side benefit, I threw together a database adaptor which abstracts the 8 essential database operations [create/destroy database;create/drop table;insert,update,delete,select] at a level high enough that we never have to muck with SQL. This makes it possible to augment it with non-SQL databases - such as Mongodb. In it's present form it allows painless migration between sqlite, mysql, and postgresql (it currently handles 5 different PHP database interfaces - automatically figuring out what's available - yada yada yada)

So, at this point, I feel more than comfortable saying No to ORM's.

BTW - if you go to the YASiteKit site, you may be a little dissapointed because all of this good stuff is not available yet. But It Will Be - Real Soon Now (no kidding). And a whole lot more.

What is on the site is a pretty-much full set of documentation - both about the system design and about how each of the parts work [I write doc as I go, so it's not all pretty - but it's useful (I know because I use it)].

So take a look. If you have any comments - let me know.

Also, if you like it enough to want to help - let me know sooner - I'm almost ready to turn it loose to see if it gets any traction.

Choices [Rant Warning]

I've been thinking a lot about the idea of Choice lately. Not so much any particular choice, but the whole idea itself and how it differentiates us from rocks and water and stuff like that.

It seems to me that one of the distinguishing features of 'life' verses 'non-life' things is that 'living' things get to choose what they do rather than just follow the 'laws of nature'. For example, rocks don't do much of anything except just sit where they are or roll down hill or get knocked someplace else by something else, but a bug can get up and go someplace else - even against gravity, if it wants to.

So what? Well, I've been wondering for a long time why we (that is us 'humans') do such stupid things and - even when we realize they are stupid and we are hurting ourselves - keep doing them. We even go so far as to tell ourselves - and everyone who will listen - how hard it is for us to not do them.

Take eating too much. When I eat too much for a while, I get fat and crabby. Then I feel sorry for myself because (I claim) it's oh, so hard to not eat too much. It sounds like there is an army of bad guys stuffing food into my mouth - but what's really happening is that I'm choosing to pig out. It takes real effort to keep eating when I'm full or when I'm not really hungry.

That one's simple and easy to see. And it's easy to see that if I'm fat, I made myself that way and I did it because I wanted to eat more than I wanted to feel good.

But it goes a lot further than just eating.

I think we've made up all kinds of religious garbage to excuse our disgusting behavior. We make up and believe in gods and devils and genetic forces and team loyalty and goals and success and all kinds of other junk to take the heat off of ourselves. 'The Devil tempted me - and I was weak',
'It's in my Genes - I can't help myself', 'We've got to do it for the Team', ' .. or the Company', '... or our Kids', '... or for Honor', '... or Because That's the Kind of Man/Woman I Am'. etc

It's all a smoke screen.

We do it because that's what we choose to do - just like those guys who strap bombs on themselves and kill a bunch of people.

It's a personal, misguided decision.

The hell of it is, it isn't hard to Stop. It doesn't take Effort to not do something. There really isn't any force making us do this stuff. Want proof? Just anethesize your mind somehow - and you won't be doing all that stuff you think is so hard to not do.

So let's get over it and stop kidding ourselves.

We muck things up, piss each other off, get mad about stuff, drill oil wells places where we can't plug leaks, kill people, destroy the whole bloody planet and everything on it because we choose to.

That's all there is to it.

And that's what makes us different from a nice, peaceful rock.