I was talked into reading Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" recently and
started it reluctantly. In the past, I tried reading "The
Fountainhead" and was bored stiff by it so never tried to read "Atlas
Shrugged". "Atlas" starts slow but does get better.
In the book, Rand's protagonist is an engineer who builds a railroad
and while she is riding on it for the first time, she looks at the
motors on the locomotive and thinks of them as "morality cast in
steel", a line that appeals to me. Building something that is useful
is truly meaningful which is why so many of us are driven to do so.
Rand posits that it is sinful to have a purposeless life, something to
which I can agree but so many people have not yet found a purpose.
People who write software probably get the same good feeling when
their code runs well. Cabinet makers probably take pride in seeing
their work used. Artists take pride in seeing their work done. It
seems to be a human impulse to build things, to take raw materials
from nature and make something distinctly human. It is now clear to
me why I build so many boats, campers, spectrometers (work), etc.
However, this leaves me wondering how Jackson Pollock ever knew when
one of his paintings was finished.