The way
Naruto called it a nindō — a way you never go back on. Zen would call it practice. I just call it how I try to work.
Seven principles I return to when things get hard, in code and elsewhere. Not rules — reminders.
Verbs, not nouns.
I am not « a developer ». I build, I write, I play. Nouns are cages; verbs are practice. What I do every day is who I am — the rest is a business card.
Read →Practice over mood.
Motivation comes and goes; deliberate practice compounds. Show up, do the reps, review honestly — on the board, in the code, in the writing.
learned from ChessMood
Every sentence earns its place.
K&R taught me what clean writing looks like; clean code is the same discipline. If a line doesn't earn its place — prose or code — it goes.
from The C Programming Language
Question the rules you inherited.
Lakhiani calls them Brules — bullshit rules: assumptions you follow without deciding if they deserve obedience. The question: "Is this a real constraint, or a convention I never thought to challenge?" Examine before you obey.
from The Code of the Extraordinary Mind
Read →Decide under pressure.
A fighter pilot's framework: brief, decide, debrief. Complexity is no excuse for hesitation — in systems, in code, in life.
from Au-delà du Cockpit
Leave space.
Ma — the interval that gives things meaning. In a page, in a schedule, in a conversation. Emptiness is not absence; it's respect for what remains.
Lose well.
I sit across from grandmasters and lose on time in winning positions. The point was never to avoid losing. It's to come back with the lesson.
Complex problems often have simple solutions.
— Steven Magee