Thoughts and Interesting Stories---Jeff Clark

I have been programming in support of my work (research and teaching) for over four decades now. I started in APL, then move very briefly to C and then for a while in C++. A lot of the C++ concepts have stayed with me in terms of programming style, but I then moved to interpreted languages for a number of reasons, first to Perl and now to Python for decades. Python allows me to at least try to write elegant code and appeals to me aesthetically, although as time goes by I do tend to focus more and more on C++ concepts of interface design, hiding implementations, test-driven development and programming by contract. (Java came along later to these things and I never warmed to Java.) Now that my retirement is in sight (I'm about 80% of the way through my career) I've been trying to articulate my programming style. I want programs to be correct but also demonstrably correct; clarity and programming by contract are more and more at the forefront of my mind. For the last few years an ...

 Quite a good explanation of what too many have forgotten: http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/michael/blog/2202/index.html#x220220

I serve as faculty ombudsperson at my university (Elon) but the title of this post refers to another ombudsperson, Jim Huegerich (for the town of Chapel Hill, NC) who passed away recently. His website gives a nicely detailed description of his work in that setting, that I wanted to share. I've been seeing testimonials since his passing to the warmth and compassion he brought to the job, definitely a role model for me. Why Ombuds? The Ombuds Office helps residents, visitors,  and Town employees navigate their experience of living and working in Chapel Hill. We do this by helping people tell their story in a way that it can be heard, and by identifying options, strategies and resources that help people thrive.  We want to hear from you if you have an idea that would be helpful to the Town, or if you have an issue or concern that you want to discuss.     Ombud’s Role The Ombuds will provide a safe place for anyone  to share their concerns and explore stra...

In political parties it is often hard to separate the politician from the message. Supporters tend to support people and not platforms. There is party identification certainly. It's flipped since the Republican party threw in with Trump. Today the House Republican members voted to censure the two of their members willing to sit on a committee investigating the riot that killed five policemen in their building. We've seen the video. It's amazing more people weren't killed or injured. They were censured for daring to question Trump's actions in directing a mob to overturn the election. No principles seem to be involved other than a thirst for power.  Will those involved look back later and wonder what led them to all this?  

In my personal and professional life I have to have difficult conversations from time to time; most people do.  Avoidance and denial often get in the way of seeing through the conversation to a good outcome, and yet in my better moments I have managed, following the example of various role models in my life. A long-since retired colleague, Jim Drummond, shared with me a checklist for such conversations many years ago. I lost it, of course, but have seen variations of it on the web. If you Google "Difficult Conversations Checklist" you can find various revisions.  Feel free to try  https://www.thefbcg.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/A-Difficult-Conversation-Checklist_Handout.pdf . One component of the checklist is a systematic approach to empathy:  what is the other person's narrative? Without some understanding of that, there is no good outcome that I can see. Sometimes it requires a series of conversations to achieve that; sometimes it's there immediately in an angry...