Paul Graham has a new column on deciding what to imitate. Copy the things you really like, he says. But how do you figure out what that is?
Another way to figure out what you like is to look at what you enjoy as guilty pleasures. Many things people like, especially if they're young and ambitious, they like largely for the feeling of virtue in liking them. 99% of people reading Ulysses are thinking "I'm reading Ulysses" as they do it. A guilty pleasure is at least a pure one. What do you read when you don't feel up to being virtuous? What kind of book do you read and feel sad that there's only half of it left, instead of being impressed that you're half way through? That's what you really like.
He's right, of course, but his advice isn't very useful. My guilty pleasures are Matt Helm novels and viking metal. These do not easily transfer to writing software. But maybe I just haven't tried hard enough.
Posted by Ben Brumfield at August 1, 2006 09:29 AM