People sometimes tell me I joke around too much and this harms my work and other people.
In my LIVE talk and my Onward!!! talk, I made fun of the people who try to divide the “live coding” and “live programming” worlds into two. I mocked the idea that “live coding” and “live programming” are different things that should be kept apart.
And since these talks, numerous people have told me things like “Lu this is not the right way to do this” and “this is destructive” and “this doesn’t bring people together: it only causes chaos”.
Instead, I should identify similarities and differences, and discuss the pros and cons of merging these terms versus not doing so. In a carefully constructed argument, I should lay out my—
The tadi web is a joke. It’s a parody.
And numerous people have told me that I only made it a joke so that I can avoid being vulnerable. By it being “just a joke”, I can dismiss any criticism I get because I can just say that it’s “just a joke”.
Instead, they say I should be serious about the tadi web. I should do it / commit to the idea fully / live it for multiple years and—
I made a parody of Bret Victor’s Stop drawing dead fish talk. I put up my parody on a website called Draw dead fish and I managed to ‘perform’ it in my Death of the tadi web talk (which is also a parody).
Some people enjoyed it but many more people told me I went too far and I should take it down.
People warned me that Bret Victor’s friends might see it, or— Heaven forbid, Bret himself might stumble across—
Dreamberd is a perfect programming language. It is also a joke / a parody of the entire programming language ecosystem. It is not a parody of any specific programming language itself. It is a parody of all the people behind them.
And unlike all my other jokey things, no one seems to complain about Dreamberd. My theory for this is that everyone thinks Dreamberd is not about them.
People say “Dreamberd is a parody of javascript” or “Dreamberd is a parody of rust” or “Dreamberd is a parody of programming language academics obsessing over—” or “Dreamberd is a parody of startup culture injecting our—”
Whatever it is, people seem to define Dreamberd in a way that excludes themselves from its targets.
Everyone loves a parody when it’s not about them.
I wrote a facetious poem about independent researchers and how they refuse to work more openly and—
So I wrote a follow up where I—
I guess I could go on and on. This is a recurring pattern for me.
I don’t think I can even begin to convey why— the reason we joke / “the why” behind humour.
It’s funny how many people think we only joke because “it’s funny”. As if that’s the whole complete answer / as if that’s the satisfactory truth.
Some people think “it lets us get away with saying things we want to say but we can’t”. And they’re not completely wrong but—
Some people think humour is an excuse for bad behaviour. We can say something mean or do something harmful and then just put up our hands and say “but I was just joking” and “it’s just a joke”. You know, “like on top gear”.
And in my experience, these same people think we shouldn’t tell any jokes that are mean or cutting or insulting, full stop.
And in my experience, these same people are all men: The most sensitive and fragile humans of all.
Not everyone gets every joke.
In fact, there is no joke that everyone gets, because if everyone gets it, then there is no joke. Because, when you tell a joke, you— Look, we’ve been through this already.
Not everyone gets every joke, no. But still…
*ahem*
Jokes can show us perspective. They can let us step back and take a fresh look at what we see.
Jokes can take things to their logical extremes. They can illuminate the silly and hateful, often the same thing.
Jokes can bring us together. They always involve a shared subtext / some hidden connection that gets further reinforced by telling a joke.
Jokes can get us all angry and energised.
Jokes can piss off the right people.
Jokes can give us laughter where there was previously pain.
Jokes let us see hidden things. They can find clarity in chaos, or cause it.
Jokes give us a chance to face something hard with a lighter step.
Jokes can turn problems into games.
Jokes can make you smile.
Jokes can make you cry.
Jokes can do anything!
And Humour is powerful! So use it wisely, but definitely use it.
In mystery, truth, chaos and peace, keep the jokes, if nothing else
Sleeping tode in heaven and the holy berd
Amen
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