Software Engineers are like Cyclists

Matthew Wilson writes:

Being as how cycling is the most beautiful of all sports, being a fascinating mix of pain, physical prowess, ability to suffer, profound (but often subtle/hidden) strategy, bluff, courage, and joy, I always tend to see it as a metaphor for pretty much anything worthwhile in life. On my morning 90 mins of torture, around June last year, just after Bill had kindly agreed to bring me into the Artima Blog fold, I spent the time thinking about the correlations between cycling and software engineering. (Since I was then - and still am now! - pretty mentally spent after the writing of Imperfect C++, I tended to focus on the arduous characteristics. Hopefully you can apply a veneer - (see chapter 21 ) - of optimism over my perspective and still find some useful aspects of the metaphor.

Some of Matthew's points:

* Getting the miles in.
* Muscle memory.
* Endorphins.
* Research.
* Save it for tomorrow.
* Feeling the road.
* Turning into the wind.
* Hitting the hills.

Read much more here.