Cromwell's rule

Cromwell's rule is derived from a letter Oliver Cromwell wrote to the synod of the Church of Scotland on August 5th, 1650 in which he said "I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, consider it possible that you are mistaken." The rule is, very simply, do not take anything for absolute; totality is wrong.

I am not Christian, in fact, I am very much Jewish, and certain parts of my anatomy will certainly show that, but I have a very great respect for that statement. The world is entering a very dangerous period. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, must consider the possibility that they are mistaken.

Very recently a small Danish newspaper published a set of cartoons making fun of Mohammed. They did it to show that the media is censoring itself on criticizing Mohammed. So, what happened. Well, the Muslim world went bizerk. They burned consulates, killed people, robbed banks, oh yes, robbed banks, marched, protested, burned flags, fired oozies in the air, chanted death to Israel, etc... An Iranian newspaper even created a competition for the best holocaust cartoon. Undoubtedly, numerous entries were submitted.

Everyone considers their position to be superior. No side understands or cares about the other. One side will tell you that the other does not understand or care. The other side will reverse the statement and tell you the same. Don't believe me. Here is an example. The greatest pain a person can feel is the passing of a loved one. That is the greatest fear and the greatest pain. A part of you dies as well. The more you love someone, the more you will understand this statement. On the other hand, one hundred Palestinian children being killed by a stray bomb will produce a quickly passing feeling of regret for their unfortunate passing.

Every culture, at every point in history that believed in totality brought about the greatest suffering up to that point in history. Consider Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Ferdinand and Isabella of Castile, Lenin, Mao, Christian Crusades, and so forth. This could be a very long list, but a few of these names should prove my point.

Someone has to be correct right? Maybe. This question seems extremely complicated. I don't know.

What I do know is that any culture or any person that believes something in such an absolute is dangerous and no matter how well meaning is horribly wrong. Nothing is simple and clear cut. Everything has multiple sides, and therefore any totality is always wrong no matter how well meaning.

I think Queen Margrethe II of Denmark said it best:
"There is, as said, something moving about people, whom to this degree surrender to a faith. However there is also something frightening about such a totality, which also is a side of Islam. There must be shown counter-play [interplay of an alternative / sparring], and once in a while you have to run the risk of getting a less flattering label stuck upon you. Because there is certain things before which one should not be tolerant."

Frustration

I am extremely frustrated with the keyboard and mouse, specifically the mouse. I find the mouse to be a very outdated device that simply doesn't keep up with me. Good hackers don't even use the mouse. A lot of times, I find myself simply memorizing all the possible shortcuts and deal only with the keyboard. The reason is exactly that, shortcuts. Its faster to type out some cryptic combination like holding a key down while pressing a set of other keys rather then to nagivate the mouse to a menu, and perform a few clicks. I think the problem is that the mouse is not an extension of the hand. It's unnatural. The eyes and brain move infinitely faster. Perhaps, if the hand was the mouse. It takes such a long time to move the mouse from one side of the screen to another. The mouse is made slow on purpose because it is not a very precise device. Imagine how hard it would be to navigate it, if the mouse flew across the screen. The human hand, fingers are a lot more precise. In theory, I think the hand acting as a mouse can move much faster. There is also a possibility of interacting more naturally with the computer if your hands can be involved. For example, physically taking and moving windows rather then performing some sort of click and hold motion. There are also 2 hands and 10 fingers providing a potential for even fuller interaction. There is no reason that the mouse has to be a single item. What about 10 different mouses, or perhaps there is no mouse at all, but your hands can physically interact with the computer in a virtual plane.

Perhaps part of my frustration stems from that fact that it takes a very long time to do anything on the computer. Imagine building a simple web based program. There are a couple of screens, lets say 5 queries, some fancy interaction such as ajax, perhaps some column sorting, expanding, maybe some data pop-ups, some drill downs. A little program like this will probably take one person a few days, maybe even a week to fully build out and test. That's extremely slow. This system might not even be what the business wants causing further delays. There has to be a faster way. There is nothing even remotely complicated or interesting about these little programs. These programs are simply a test of how fast one can type and how easy they can define the architecture to minimize typing in the first place. We are developing stupid little programs at such a low level. It is extremely inefficient, not to mention boring.

The solution so far has been to build tools on top of tools. IDE's are attempting to simplify certain actions, visual development tools are attempting to convert languages into workflow models. IDE's are replacing development. They are simply making it faster. Workflow based languages are creating another layer of complexity. Instead of writing an if statement you move
a picture of an if statement into a plane, and then configure it by filling out a form. This is an interesting idea, and has the capacity to produce very powerful systems rather quickly, but I am not a true believer. I don't have a solution, I am just really frustrated.