Today, I visited the blogs of the participants in BlogWalk. A lot of "knowledge work" popped up, but also a lot of trivia reporting, "have a look at this", etc. What amazed me most is that the blogs are well-organised, especially the side bars: links to anything and everyone. That must have taken a significant amount of time.
I have not found the time to properly organise my blog. The reason is simple. My work consists of trying to turn ideas into something tangible, and combining that with the ambitions of my colleagues, the most effective method for me is: programming (well, my colleagues think so anyway and I like programming).
Is it useful for a scientist to able to program? I think it is. First of all, ideas get a perspective. Sometimes an idea cannot be realistically implemented and has to be disregarded that way. The examples are multifold, theories about machine translation from language to another is one. One of the reasons I like programming, is that it generates a lot of ideas as well.
Herbert Simon, in The Sciences of the Artificial, evaluates analysis vs. design in science. Being able to program, it appears possible to enjoy both perspectives. I am sure that some BlogWalkers have read Simon's book, if not: it may be worth your while. It is a classic, and Simon got some of his ideas ... through programming.
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