TTFeb: Coding pet peeves

momijizukamori prompted: Coding pet peeves

 

I don't really have strong or verbose opinions on this, but it might be bad variable names. Because unlike poorly documented or unreadable code, which are problems that take effort and time to fix, the really bad variable names could be fixed by like, one second of thought?? 'Purple' is a terribly unhelpful name! Something that hints towards the purpose of the variable while disambiguating it from similar variables, please. 

 

A close second might be people who refuse to use functions and all their code is one enormous serial chunk. 

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Exhalation and Stories of Your Life and Others, by Ted Chiang

I will simply solve the problem of tracking short story consumption by only reading collections!

Ted Chiang probably counts as bf's favorite author, and I did really like Story of Your Life and Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom, so I have been wanting to read these anthologies for a while! I think after having read them... those are still my favorite two stories hahaha, but they're really good, so they set a high bar!

In general, Chiang is obsessed and has clearly thought deeply about a few questions, circling around ideas about free will, continuity of self, and the 'what if [historical idea] were true' type questions. Most of these short stories are solidly in the realm of sci-fi, but even when the premise is not science-based, are very much written with that sci-fi approach of 'if X were true, what WOULD be the consequence'. Accordingly, I really liked some of the stories that showed off that depth of thought, but some of them did not say particularly different things, as he explored some of the same ideas again. Still, interesting premises is definitely his strongest point.

Chiang has a deft touch with technical explanations (presumably, practice helps, as he's a technical writer by trade), which means those potentially pace altering moments move instead of plod. His narrator voice is usually pretty strong, but where it falters tends to be in the plot and characters (this is okay because they're short stories). What separated the merely decent stories from the excellent tended to be how well he managed to incorporate a story into an interesting idea. This is why Story of Your Life is, IMO, his best: that combination of a unique premise with a solid story. Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom is my second favorite because it has good characters (one of the few times--) and the premise is one that I still think about often, years after I read it for the first time.

I also really enjoyed his Story Notes at the end of each book, that explained some of the backstory. This especially was relevant for Hell Is the Absence of God, as I missed that a core part of the story is in conversation with the Book of Job, and that was definitely needed to make the story have a strong point.

Going through all of the stories is probably excessive, but I had additional thoughts on some stories:
The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate: first read found this not very special, but it actually stuck in my mind a lot because it was a simple idea well executed.
Exhalation: a lovely meditation on [spoiler!] entropy, which made me more annoyed when I read the rather ...fictional interpretation of entropy in Seventy-Two Letters later. Entropy is a concept that sci-fi writers frequently get wildly wrong, so that stood out.
The Lifecycle of Software Objects: loved the premise and the digients were so cute, but the characters were a bit boring. Still, some really interesting ideas in here, esp about how the digital creatures might view being copied.
Tower of Babylon: I'm curious if other people read this-- what was your hypothesis about the structure of the world before the final reveal? I thought it was going to be infinite water; bf thought it was going to be stacked worlds like some of the planes from D&D.

If you're considering reading these, I would definitely recommend starting with Story of Your Life and Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom, and if you like them, continuing with the rest.