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Smalltalk Report, March–April, 1995
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
I was really stuck trying to write the second half of the garbage collection column. By this time, I felt like I had the column thing wired- sit down, bang out, email. Ka-ching. Not this time. Nothing I tried worked. The column started out late. It kept getting later.
My solution, as you can see, was to rework material from my by-now-jelling patterns book. I didn't feel particularly good about it, because I knew it wouldn't change anyone's life dramatically, and I always wanted to have an impact. However, it got the column done.
I'll tell you what happened to garbage collection. I sat down three times to write the next column about garbage collection, and nothing came out. Between that, my wife's ten-game winning streak at Cribbage, and 46 inches of rain so far this year (and it's still January), I'm pretty frustrated.
I've been reading Edward DeBono's book Thinking Course (highly recommended). One of the techniques he suggests, and also one I've seen in art, is when you're stuck, do the opposite. In art, if you're having trouble drawing a thing, try to draw something that is completely the opposite. Of course, it's impossible to draw “not a flower,” so you end up with something which gets at “flowerness” backwards. I'm writing a column about “not garbage collection.” I'm not sure where I'll end up, but at least the column will be done.
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