10 PRINT “Hello Bitsy!”
10 PRINT…
was one of the first lines I keypunched to five hole paper tape, in 1976. Dartmouth BASIC was a joy — I wrote pages and pages of line after line in a notebook and carefully thought through the outcomes before daring to sit at the keypunch. Getting the tape right on the first try meant I would not have to re-key or splice the tape; perfection on the first try was so very satisfying. I was master of the machine.
I’m still close to the machine and enjoy my adventures in technology. Bitsy is my inner voice, the sage advisor that kept me from losing my love for technology when the people around the technology were, well, challenging. She is direct and relentless but still as joyful as a young software engineer traipsing through task control blocks in system dumps, drinking vending machine coffee, and eating packets of Lorna Doone cookies.
She’s still with me after all these years (over forty of them now!). I still use a IBM Model M mechanical keyboard attached to a MacBook, and wave my wine stained punchcard about at conferences. Lorna Doones are still a favorite snack. Over those years I’ve asked and answered thousands of questions about delivering technology with, and sometimes in spite of, organizations and people. Those I’ve adventured with likely recognize these ‘Bitsy-isms’:
The technology is the easy part.
Plans are just the things from which we deviate.
I should have taken more psychology courses in school.
… and more.
For my fortieth anniversary as a professional software engineer I’ve decided to give Bitsy a voice as an advice columnist for those of us who love technology but sometimes struggle with the people and organizations that surround it.
Does the world need another advice columnist? Goodness, if you’d like to master async/await or debug a deadlock, advice is a quick Google or ChatGPT query away. The technology is the easy part; it should be the fun part. Bitsy can help when mastering the machine stops being fun. She believes that GitHub is a social network for good and is an advocate for open source, open conversation, open exchange of ideas, and the nineteen lessons; her advice may soothe or skewer, but all in good fun. Hopefully her voice can also become yours when you need it most.
