dsandler.org/wp

Another couple of choice quotes from the Simonyi
interview. First:

My routine is that I program at night and I am
interrupted during the day.

Then, something that sort of gets at why I’ve really enjoyed working
out in the non-academic, “real” world, despite my previous
complaints about the firefighting aspects of the job:

The key difference between
programming in the abstract and programming as a business is that there is a
solid purpose in business. Otherwise, it is just an abstract activity, like
playing a game of chess. When you are at the end of the game, you jumble the
pieces. The game is gone. When the program is done, some
people use it, and I see they enjoy it, and I derive enjoyment from
that.