verrp

The longer something has existed, the longer it is likely to continue existing.

aka the (postulated) Lindy Effect

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_effect

I have long suspected that the aliens will recognize Go (the game), but (obviously) not Chess (the other game).

I suspect they will even recognize Go's 19x19 board (b/c it has properties other board sizes would not have).

But would they recognize 12 tones scales?

I've studied math books this way. Never a whole book, but certainly sections or chapters here and there. I found it gave me a much improved appreciation for the high level structure of the material (or at least of it's presentation).

"I don't know shit about fuck."

I wish it was easier to create "snapshots" of a particular set of environment variables in order to use them later as run environments.

docker gives you this (but only as part of a whole ecosystem, which for various reasons you might not want to hitch your horse to).

I think of your area (compilers) not as outside the front-end/back-end dichotomy, but (to your point) outside the the world of web-apps, etc.

The front-end/back-end lens can be applied to compilers -- just the "front-end" (invocation options, error/status messages, maybe IDE integrations) is very thin, compared to the "back-end" (i.e., everything else).