A Gothic Cathedral of JavaScript and SQL

Not much has changed since last time.

The Omnisense site is close to being finished. Including me, it's been worked on by various people on and off for the last 4 years, so it would be really nice to finish it off.

Some gothic cathedrals in the middle ages were worked on by various people, when there were resources, on and off for more than 400 years. That's a long time. Some aren't even finished today (La Sagrada Família).

Within a span of 400 years, the technology used to build cathedrals and the style in which they were built changed. And since god deserves the best cathedral humans have to offer, the resulting cathedral is one of multiple styles and techniques of construction, each part constructed in the current state of the art way.

Which reminds me of the site. Things evolve quickly online, and some of the stuff that was done 4 years ago is already outdated.

I guess this is true of anything that you work on. As you go, your perception of what is ideal will probably change (and it probably should).

I made an animation to show this.

It's not necessarily the case that the target itself is moving (although I think it can), but rather your perception of where the target is altogether.

Notice how each time you jump toward the target, it's a little bit closer to where you thought it should be.

I think that's how it works, and it's similar in spirit to this.

Just think of the goals you had for yourself when you were young. The things you wanted then are probably different from what you want now.

Should you keep your promises to that younger person and pursue the things they would deem worthy?

Probably not, because that person doesn't exist anymore, and they're not you.

Unless you think the younger you is wiser than you now. Then you should become a billionaire and live on an island with a helicopter.

It's unlikely that younger you is wiser than current you, so I think it's okay to let go of expedient, naive goals (even ones that were important to you) and to take aim at things that are more meaningful.

Like trying to befriend the dolphins.

And making silly oil portraits of your friends.

I do think it's important to recognize this gain in perspective, but also the loss of perspective that comes with progressing through time. Perhaps there was a reason younger you made that promise to current you, and perhaps that reason is worth considering.

You can't be sure where the targets are exactly, so the only way to get as close as you can is iterated improvement.

Try, fail, try again, fail again, fail better, repeat.