Earlier this year, I read and enjoyed A pattern language. I have a lot left to absorb from that book, but it also quickly led me another exciting step forward. I became aware of The timeless way of building, the book which explains the thoughts and philosophies behind pattern languages.

A pattern language - the book - is exactly that: one language of patterns, among infinite possible languages and patterns.

A pattern language - the book - is a thougt-provoking and enjoyable list of things which make places of all sizes life-affirming. The timeless way of building is a much more flowing creation, a journey of thoughts and experiences which lead up to and define what patterns are and how they work. There is no one set of them, and no pattern has one and only one way of being applied. In fact, if things are not different each time something has gone wrong.

The timeless way of building is very calming and very, very vivid. I find it almost cinematic at times, when places and moments come alive as I read about them.

It is a book and way of thinking I believe I would have enjoyed a lot at any time in my adult life. But these days, it feels more refreshing and important than ever before.

It is a book full of optimism.

Of belief in people and the good we can do.

It knows we can all make things better, in ways large and small, and it reminds us we do not need permission from anyone to do so.

All of this flows through A pattern language as well, but it becomes so much clearer and more concentrated in The timeless way of building because it focuses squarely on the philosophy.

I want to make things in the timeless way, full of the quality without a name. Software especially. I have wanted to more or less forever, but Alexander has given me new and clearer thoughts around it.

Spotting the book next to me, the thirteen-year old quipped "Oh, you're on to the New testament now." There are so many ways I could object to that comparison. Still, something about it feels right and good at the same time.

I do not feel like dissecting that any further, I am fully content to enjoy that contradiction just the way it is.

Goatmire Elixir was excellent.

I could stop right there.

Three days of Elixir - a language I do not use - in a theatre in off-season Varberg may not sound all that amazing. If so, it could be because you are missing the fact that a theatre in off-season Varberg is a fantastic place to gather a small, high-energy community. Everyone was nice and approachable, speaker, participant, and organizer alike. There were always people around, but never a long line. Everything worked so well that it looked easy and completely natural.

All talks were great, and a ridiculous percentage were completely stellar. Speakers had been encouraged to lean into theatricality, and many did to great effect. Murder mysteries. Multi-act stories. Frequent use of props.

Fantastic Hamlet-inspired monologues about pull requests.

And of course puppetry set to live music.

Wow.

There was also a programmable e-ink badge which spawned its own sub-theme, several mentions of _why the lucky stiff, live coding music, great evening discussions, and plenty of coffee.

I am still very much processing everything. I am going to start the work week in a few minutes, and it feels like I have been away for ages, in the best possible way.

All runs are different, and the one today was no exception.

It was yet another of those times where it took me pretty much exactly half an hour - and half the distance - to feel any kind of flow and energy. The strange thing is that I know this happens to various degrees pretty often, and yet I still doubt it in the beginning, and find it surprising when I pass that point into a bit of flow.

I found the flow to such a degree that I think the second half was quite a bit faster than last time I ran the same distance, even though I felt much stronger and faster overall that time.

Sticking with stuff pays off. It is kind of my thing, really. And yet I still do not quite manage to trust that it is how things work.

On my read of the classic A pattern language, I came across pattern 156: Settled work.

(I am not yet done with the whole book, and there is a lot of good stuff to dig into on just about every page. This is just one very random example of everything interesting which is to be found on the pages. I want to make at least one and possibly more Kodsnack episodes discussing the book and its ideas once I am through all of it.)

Settled work is, more or less, a concept of work you do because it is meaningful and satisfying to you. Fulfilling work, perhaps, rather than something you do to make a living. The pattern states this as a prerequisite for fulfillment in old age, and goes on to say that everyone should get the chance of having their own workshop at home or close to it where they can find their own settled work.

One essential part is that this needs to happen over time - you need to find what is fulfilling to you and develop your work over time. So, you need to start before you retire. Retirement is when you can have the time to really let your settled work bloom, but to really do so it probably needed time to be found and honed as a hobby well before.

This sounds … very appealing and simple to me.

Writing, drawing, podcasting, perhaps some coding here and there.

I am so ready.

I have been doing it for years and am ready to let it expand in time I devote to it.

The pattern also discusses how modern society creates too much of a rift between working life and retirement, and between work and home. This in a book written in the 70's, mind you. I think we may be doing better in some parts over here 50 years later, but probably even worse in others.

Settled work: bring it on. I could do this all day, as they say.

(Yes, this is one of the patterns in a book about architecture and buildings. They do adopt a wide perspective on the topic.)

I have been reading quite a bit lately.

Not by any absolute terms. But compared to myself in last, oh … lots of years it is significant.

I hope I keep it up. It feels like some small extra part of my brain has woken up in the process, a part that can go too sleep when reading becomes too many snippets of too many things too often.

Or, you know, perhaps it is just early summer and the light and warmth is doing me good?

Reading and the brain waking up sounds a bit cooler though.