Month: December 2023

In the previous post I blamed some big rocks for slow progress on our new accounting software. But I think the problem is deeper.

Programming requires intense focus. In fact, it works best with more than that. Every new product we’ve made took a spell of total obsession. TurtleSoft’s history has a few of those, interspersed with low-focus coasting.

The first batch of software obsession was a couple months in Winter 1986. It built spreadsheets and macros for estimating and accounting. The second was five years, 1988 to 1993, as TurtleSoft grew exponentially. Then another five, 1997 to 2002, to finish and polish Goldenseal.

More recently, it took a year of obsession circa 2015 to update to 64 bit and rewrite the database engine. Only shorter spurts since then. Most creative binges were interrupted by something: noisy neighbors, Covid, moving, need for other work to pay bills. A few years of effort were wasted on platforms that didn’t work out.

In between the creative bursts, small stuff still gets done. But most energy goes to other interests. One can only stay focused on one thing for so long. Obsession is draining, and not healthy. Sitting for many hours at a computer add 2 or 3 pounds of body fat per month.

Software is not the only thing that requires obsession. It applies to anything big and new. I just watched The Wind Rises, a Studio Ghibli film about aircraft design. In it, Count Caproni says you only get ten years in the sun, for that level of creativity. Hayao Miyazaki may speak from his own experience.

The new accounting app is close to completion, but it’s hard to find motivation to work on it. My ten years are up. Work is getting done, but it’s moving very slowly. The rocks, yard and house are too enticing.

I don’t know how many people still use the current Goldenseal. Most of our users started in the 1980s to 00s, and probably retired by now. Construction has similar creative burn-out issues (plus Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and back pain).

There’s a bit of a turning point for TurtleSoft, right now. It’s almost time to make payroll tax tables for 51 US states/DC, plus 13 provinces and territories in Canada. Skipping it this year is an effective way to count the surviving Goldenseal user base (at least for the payroll software). If nobody squeaks, a tedious week will be avoided. Something else can get accomplished instead.

I don’t know how many people read this blog. Usually that doesn’t matter, since I enjoy writing it. It’s a good way to gain clarity. Maybe Google likes it, and sends searches our way. However, hearing from readers who still want the new accounting/estimating software will be useful. An aid to motivation. Send a hello to support@turtlesoft.com.

Since 2015, the project has been a long, long slog with zero financial reward. It will finish just out of sheer inertia and guilt, but completion will be quicker if there’s a better reason in sight.

Dennis Kolva
Programming Director
TurtleSoft.com

 

 

 

Progress on our new accounting software is still going slowly. It’s mostly because of large rocks.

Our new office has a triple-size lot at the urban edge of suburbia. It’s on a slope which was bulldozed into flat sections, with steeper bits in between. Those were covered with black plastic and small stones, held by rock walls at the bottom. 25 years of frost expansion and gravity caused the stones to slide down, collapsing the walls. In places, the soil itself shifted. The steepest bank is 7 feet vertical and only 7 feet horizontal. That’s challenging, even in glacial till.

Repairs must be done before spring, to get it ready for plantings that will hold the slopes better. So, until there’s snow or frozen ground, this is the most urgent project.

I’ve done plenty of stone work over the years, but never with such big rocks. Some wiggle an inch at a time, with leverage from a long pry bar. One moved faster thanks to a come-along tied to an upslope tree. Too bad there aren’t more of those.

I’m sure the stones were originally set with heavy equipment, but this project is too small to be worth the rental/delivery/pickup cost. Anyhow it’s a good way to lose weight.

The damaged walls are about 80% done. Weather will get worse soon enough, so there will be more reason to sit at the computer and build software.

Dennis Kolva
Programming Director
TurtleSoft.com