It’s hard to be humble, when you’re as great as I am.

-Muhammad Ali

Death comes to all
But great achievements raise a monument
Which shall endure until the sun grows old.

-George Fabricius

I rarely believe people when they tell me that they are “great” at something. I used to. But after going to hear some of the “great” bands they played with, or seeing some of the code written by a “great” programmers, or being in a car with some “great” drivers I think I became cynical. The real problem is to do with the meaning of the word. It means different things to different people. To me it has a strong meaning. I think to be great at something you need to have a superior skill. You need to be remarkable.

There are lots of people who are good at things, lots of them who are better than everyone else they know but it doesn’t make them great. I was at my dad’s fiftieth birthday party in September. He always wants my sister and I to sing for his party guests. This often breaks down into a mad sing-song with lots of drunk people singing out of tune and me trying to explain to people that there are lots of songs by the Beatles and Elvis that I really don’t know, but anyway, the night usually finishes with someone telling my dad that I’m a great pianist. They are wrong. I am not a great pianist. What they mean is that I can play the piano better than them, which wouldn’t be that difficult because most of them can’t play at all. Why am I not a great pianist? Well my technique is not good and I was never disciplined enough to develop it. I can play most songs by ear which is both a blessing and a curse. It means I pick things up really quickly and can play for people when there is no music but it has made me lazy. I have tried to improve but I get really frustrated with music that I can read but can’t play within a couple of hours. Without drive, determination and discipline it’s impossible to be great.

Of course some of the people who say they are great at something really are.

Tony comments on software productivity.

If Capers Jones discovered in 1978 that productivity rates decline as the size of the program increases why have we not learnt by now how to make programs smaller? Maybe it’s because some programs are just large by nature and there is no way to break them into a set of smaller problems – I don’t really believe that though. Maybe it’s because programmers love to write code – it is what we are paid for after all. Maybe it’s because we don’t pay any attention to people like Capers Jones either because we have never heard of them or somehow we believe that our situations are unique.

The Shopping and Information Service uses microcomputers to improve shopping for the housebound. In specified locations such as local libraries or the Social Services telephone centre the elderly, disabled and others can have their shopping orders entered into a microcomputer. Periodically, batches of orders are transmitted by telephone to the supermarket’s microcomputer for packing a delivery.

Whereas shopping was once a leisurely and personal affair, offering social encounters, the new superstores are clearly part of a trend towards speedy, efficient and impersonal service with most people shopping alone. Shopless shopping may be a dream for the profit hunter, but for the feckless consumer it’s just one more step towards a society in a social vacuum.

Science Now, The High-Tech Supermarket, 1983