In the east there is a shark which is larger than all other fish. It
changes into a bird whose wings are like clouds filling the sky. When
this bird moves across the land, it brings a message from Corporate
Headquarters. This message it drops into the midst of the programmers,
like a seagull making its mark upon the beach. Then the bird mounts on
the wind and, with the blue sky at its back, returns home.
The novice programmer stares in wonder at the bird, for he understands
it not. The average programmer dreads the coming of the bird, for he
fears its message. The master programmer continues to work at his
terminal, for he does not know that the bird has come and gone.
rendered by Alec Muffet in a comment on Jackie’s blog.
alecm
on Jun 19th, 2006
@ 20:22 pm:
i have the book, but the text is available at http://www.canonical.org/~kragen/tao-of-programming.html