#1-3
01 января 1987 |
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Shoutburst!
SERIOUS SOFTWARE ---------------- One of the most serious programs I ever bought was a little-known Pacman-type game that was called 'Muncher'. It was about the very first game that I ever bought for my Spectrum, back in 1982 or 1983. I only paid about `4.50 for it but I reckon I must have had hundreds and hundreds of hours of enjoyment out of it, spread over a year or so, before its impact began to lessen. Now that's what I call value but value is not the subject of this article. The subject of this article is much more serious, -it's seriousness itself! Have you ever wondered what the ultimate purpose of 'useful' things really is? I mean things like spoons, wheelbarrows, rope, shelving, electric lighting, money, transport, corkscrews, kitchen rolls, dustbins, telephones and such? Ultimately, the purpose of all these things is to take care of some problem or other so that we can enjoy ourselves. For instance, a corkscrew is useful for getting the corks out of bottles. Why? So that you can drink and enjoy the contents. Shelving is useful for storing bottles on so that they are handy when you want to consume the contents. In this example, the sole reason for the existence of the shelving is ultimately to enhance your enjoyment of the contents of the bottles. Electric lighting has no other purpose than to provide you with sufficient light in which you can enjoy yourself. Ah! Not so! I hear you cry! What about, say, the surgeon, working under his theatre lights to remove your inflamed appendix? At first sight it seems that this operation is nothing to do with enjoyment. Don't you believe it. The purpose of the operation is so that you can enjoy more life. Are you beginning to get the picture? We are conditioned from early childhood to believe that work, utility, service, achieving, accomplishing are the serious, important things in life and that enjoying yourself is frivolous, unimportant and downright pointless! THE REVERSE IS TRUE! The most important, serious and worthwhile activity in life is enjoying it! 'USEFUL' THINGS HAVE NO IMPORTANCE WHATSOEVER EXCEPT IN PROPORTION THAT THEY LEAD TO SOME FORM OF HAPPINESS! In other words, 'useful' things DERIVE their importance only indirectly because they lead to enjoyment! Shocking isn't it! All this time we have been feeling a little guilty about enjoying ourselves, playing some amusing little game or other when we know that we should really be working hard at writing that 'serious' database that will store all our friends' names and addresses, telephone numbers and birthdays. Of what use is the database? It has no value in itself except to make it easier to call your friends on the telephone and ENJOY a pleasant conversation (or make some 'serious' arrangements for a future get-together when you can ENJOY one another's company) or to remind you when a friend has a birthday so you can ENJOY sending them a card. I challenge you to think of ANY practical, useful or serious activity which, IN THE FINAL ANALYSIS has any other purpose than to bring, DIRECTLY or INDIRECTLY more happiness, enjoyment, fulfilment, pleasure to you or to others. I must stress here that I am not trying to encourage everyone to abandon the practical things in life and just eat, drink and be merry and to hell with tomorrow! Obviously, if you did that you would soon deplete what you have and ultimately your enjoyment of life would be reduced. I think our happiness is much too serious a thing to risk in that way! No, I just wish to remind ourselves what we so often overlook - that the practical, 'serious' activities are just a means to an end and not an end in themselves. This is not to suggest that one can't enjoy doing something that is practical because obviously one can but then the importance of the activity is either in our enjoyment of it and the satisfaction of completing it or in the enjoyment it eventually provides to us or to others. For example, if you work hard to build a hi-fi cabinet then the 'seriousness' of the activity is in the enjoyment you get from doing the work (if any) plus the enjoyment derived from having, seeing and using the finished product. If you are beginning to see through this mental conditioning that we are all prone to then I hope you will smile the next time you read an article or letter that smugly dismisses the frivolous in favour of the 'serious'. Now, I hope, you are starting to glimpse just what is really inherently serious and that which can only seem to be serious by virtue of that to which it leads. - Brian Cavers
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