One of the themes of this-novel-that-I-should-be-writing-instead-of-posting-this is software programming and development. So I've been reading up on programming, and I'm going to be linking to programming-related things occasionally. Since I am not a programmer myself, this stuff will hopefully be comprehensible (and even maybe interesting, if you like that kind of thing) to normal people.
So ... here's a neat post about the gulf between competence and greatness, that's applicable to just about any field. It includes one of the best why-I-love-my-iPod riffs I've seen recently:
That beautiful thumbwheel with its little clicky sounds ... Apple spent extra money putting a speaker in the iPod itself so that the thumbwheel clicky sounds would come from the thumbwheel. They could have saved pennies ... pennies! by playing the clicky sounds through the headphones. But the thumbwheel makes you feel like you're in control.
