(Note: I need to get better about finishing posts that I start in a timely manner.)
Observation: I need to stop freezing up and thinking about ideas so much, because every time I do, I wind up not getting around to implementing them.
I also need to prioritize activities better. And that means facing the hardest task I have each day first. Even if it's only for an hour. Just so long as I'm making some forward motion. Once I start moving, the inertia isn't so brutal.
The more I learn about developing software on other platforms, the more I realize that Linux really is the best platform to go with, if you ever want to use anyone else's code, or if you want anyone else to use your source. While there may be a plethora of versions and libraries to deal with, the open-source community has learned to face these problems and try to solve them. I think back to my Political Science class, in which we noted that perhaps the reason that homogeneous groups have higher social capital is because they haven't had to deal with the problems that come with wide integration of cultures, social groups, and approaches to problems. I wondered if this might also apply to the production of better code-sharing ecologies in the open-source world. I'm as of yet uncertain how to measure such a thing, but I certainly have a strong gut feeling about it.
As I shared my revelation with my labmate Anuj, he remarked "productive day." At first, I was confused - this wasn't productive, this was just my abstract musing. He explained "if you came up with an answer to an interesting question, why wouldn't it be a productive day?" We then discussed how this actually rather relates to the topic of HCI, and it was fascinating.