5 ms·

Reminds me this hacker koan: A novice was trying to fix a broken Lisp machine by turning the power off and on. Knight, seeing what the student was doing, spok

Reminds me this hacker koan: A novice was trying to fix a broken Lisp machine by turning the power off and on. Knight, seeing what the student was doing, spoke sternly: "You cannot fix a machine by just power-cycling it with no understanding of what is going wrong." Knight turned the machine off and on. The machine worked.

steveklabnik 6y ago
I have been trying to find a source for this story for a long time. Any pointers? That is, I don't mean that I expect it to be a true story, but if you were to cite this parable, how would you cite it?
- whatshisface 6y ago
  You won't find any pointers to Lisp stories.
  - m463 6y ago
    (setq stories (list "http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/koans.html")) (car stories)
    - stewbrew 6y ago
      The first cons pair is passed by value though, not by reference.
      - m463 6y ago
        I had hoped, just for a moment, to have the Contents of the Address Register.
    - stedaniels 6y ago
      Last-Modified Mon, 29 Dec 2003 18:34:39 GMT
    - kranner 6y ago
      "http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/koans.html" http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/koans.html" is a valid SEXP.
- stan_rogers 6y ago
  They live here at the Jargon File: http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/koans.html http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/koans.html
  - steveklabnik 6y ago
    Thanks; I always find the “more magic switch” story when I’m looking. I thought it was the jargon file...
- koanist 6y ago
  It's plausible! I have a similar story involving myself and my sister. She was power cycling our family computer over and over, becoming more and more frustrated as it went into 'safe mode' equivalent. I allowed it to fully power on and then rebooted it, and it was 'fixed'. The story isn't unreasonable.
  - steveklabnik 6y ago
    Oh yeah I’m not saying it can’t happen, I just mean, the literal truth isn’t what I’m after here.
  - jackhalford 6y ago
    When this situation occurs, I always pause to pet the computer and say something nice to it, as to make the other person believe the server is listening.
6nf 6y ago
The student was thus enlightened.

steveklabnik 6y ago

I have been trying to find a source for this story for a long time. Any pointers? That is, I don't mean that I expect it to be a true story, but if you were to cite this parable, how would you cite it?

whatshisface 6y ago
You won't find any pointers to Lisp stories.
- m463 6y ago
  (setq stories (list "http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/koans.html")) (car stories)
  - stewbrew 6y ago
    The first cons pair is passed by value though, not by reference.
    - m463 6y ago
      I had hoped, just for a moment, to have the Contents of the Address Register.
  - stedaniels 6y ago
    Last-Modified Mon, 29 Dec 2003 18:34:39 GMT
  - kranner 6y ago
    "http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/koans.html" http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/koans.html" is a valid SEXP.
stan_rogers 6y ago
They live here at the Jargon File: http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/koans.html http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/koans.html
- steveklabnik 6y ago
  Thanks; I always find the “more magic switch” story when I’m looking. I thought it was the jargon file...
koanist 6y ago
It's plausible! I have a similar story involving myself and my sister. She was power cycling our family computer over and over, becoming more and more frustrated as it went into 'safe mode' equivalent. I allowed it to fully power on and then rebooted it, and it was 'fixed'. The story isn't unreasonable.
- steveklabnik 6y ago
  Oh yeah I’m not saying it can’t happen, I just mean, the literal truth isn’t what I’m after here.
- jackhalford 6y ago
  When this situation occurs, I always pause to pet the computer and say something nice to it, as to make the other person believe the server is listening.

6nf 6y ago

The student was thus enlightened.