[pksebben]

I've always seen a sense of humor as an essential component of problem solving. Stressy, serious, businesslike modes tend to get stuck in the weeds and miss the forest etc

[Apocryphon]

This blog is such a classic for that.

http://computationaltales.blogspot.com

[pksebben]

thanks for this! there's some good stuff in here. Kinda reminds me of master foo http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/unix-koans/ten-thousand.ht...

[sfpotter]

It isn’t an essential part of problem solving. I think the fact that you think any technical material that isn’t humorous is automatically “stressy” may mostly say something about you… :\

For what it’s worth, I do have a sense of humor. Harvey Birdman is one of my favorite shows. The Sebben and Sebben employee orientation video is on another level.

[pksebben]

I'm afraid I wasn't communicating effectively. I have no problem with non-humorous technical material - the parent comment asked

>How does the space reserved for jellybean stains guide the reader towards the desired problem-solving approach?

... and I was suggesting that perhaps the authors were using the medium as the message - I find that being relaxed helps with debugging, typically.

[yakshaving_jgt]

Seems like a false dichotomy to me. Authors can choose to write plainly and clearly.

[Jtsummers]

The books are actually clearly written. They also have some humor in them. The horror.

[yakshaving_jgt]

Why are you directing this sarcastic comment towards me?