Ruby Conf 2013 Living in the Fantasy Land by Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto

Thank you for coming

and Ruby Conf is always great

and a keynote make me depressed (laughs)

You know I'm a programmer

I'm a language designer

so you know, my main tasks should be is designing
language

a great language

I admit that I did great things

you know

that influenced

so many people all around the world

including you guys

so I'm pretty happy with it

but still

you know

I'm not really a great presenter

nor

I'm very

I'm not really good at english

that always makes me nervous

anyway, today I'm going to talk about the
fantasy land

ok

this way

fantasy land

that is a place being away from reality

the where the unicorn lives

in Japanese it is called

genjitsu-tohi

which is escaping from reality

my dictionary says that is escapism

is that correct word or something

so for example

so the starting cleanup right before the deadline

is kinda like escapism

starting debuging mruby right before the keynote

is escapism

that is what I did

so today

I'm going to talk about

oh excuse me

two fantasy lands

the first one is kinda like a distopia

in 1990

I graduated from university

I feel old

I was hired by a software development company

which does, which did some kind of enterprise
software

in that, that age

the software development is totally different
from now

so we had some kind of three year project
or something

from the huge company or huge government department

we had some kind of analysis for months or
even years

then we wrote some kind of very detailed documentation

this abstract documentation

the detailed documentation

then we code

which is the translation from natural language
to computer language

so the process was driven by waterfall process

so the company's decision was very, very,
very conservative

so at that time I felt something was wrong

but I couldn't explain why

just because it was so natural

everyone was doing it that way in software
development

back then

so I couldn't explain why

everyone was doing that

it is quit difficult to tell what is wrong

when everyone is doing bad things

right

so yea I couldn't imagine what was right and
what was wrong

so after more than 20 years of experience

I was a pretty experienced programmer

ah maybe

now I understand, I now understand what was
wrong

we were wrong in software development

that depends on some false assumptions

we were depending on such false assumptions

assumption number one

we know what we make

back then we believed we are knowing what
we are going to make

in reality we don't know what software is

so software does not have any physical entity

so it is not limited by physical law

so it can be very, very easily complex

so, for example, if I were a building architect

so I design a building like this hotel

so we need to think about, for example

about weather, or the strengths of the concrete,

or iron, or something, the building materials

then the strength of the building itself can
be

calculated by physically, easily simulated

but you know

when we starting developing software it is
easy, like

"hello world"

that's quite easy

there is no room for bug

but the software is getting bigger and bigger

so it's quite difficult to understand say
10,000 lines of code

but now days software is so huge

like if I had a Prius here, it is an automobile,

it has tons of lines of code, maybe hundreds
of lines of code, tons of hundreds

maybe millions of code

so it's like, as a software developer, you
can imagine how difficult to ensure no bugs

in the millions of lines of code

yeah

I'm sure I cannot do that

so, the software can be a most complex creation,
maybe

and no document but code can explain the details

so the, we believe we knew what we were going
to make

but in reality, we didn't

false assumption number two, which is

we know what we want

in reality, it's quite difficult to imagine

you know, in a waterfall age I write a code
(?? 00:07:27.16) with sophistication

and I give that sophistication to our client

then clients said, OK, then we started development

a few weeks, few months, few years later

the software was finished

then I wrote

if we wrote it to the client, then

can you imagine what the client said?

it's not what I wanted

but, they said yes, this is OK

but, afterwards, they said, this is not what
I wanted

even, I admit, I said OK

but, you know, we couldn't imagine what the
software appears in reality

so, like a stupid boss says ?? (00:08:23.56)
to the client

yeah, I complained a lot

I happened to complain so often, back then

but one day, I asked my colleague to create
some kind of software

at that time I was so busy, so I

I explained what I want to my colleague

then he created the software, then back to
me

and I said, this is not what I wanted! (laughs)

stupid me

I said I don't know why we should make too
maximize business value

we couldn't, no, we couldn't understand what
is gonna bring you success

so we are stupid, too

so, false assumption number three

which is

the situation will not be changed

in reality, we don't know the future

we're not prophets

we have wrong forecasts

so yeah, in this technology field, we have
a lot of

we're gonna have this technology, we're gonna
have this, too

we're gonna conquer the world, so

most forecasts will be wrong

so let's face it

we don't know anything

20 years ago

we should have admitted our ignorance, but
we couldn't

so instead, we ignored our ignorance

so, when we know little, we have very few
choices, so

choice number one is a conservative strategy

learn from the past

so, this is very good strategy

and the politicians often take

conservative

but it is pretty good unless factors don't
change

unfortunately not in the IT industry, so

we change a lot, the situation will change
drastically, day by day

so, in our industry it's kind of like the
quote from Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland

"Now, here, you see, it takes all the running
you can do, to keep in the same place.

If you want to get somewhere else, you must
run at least twice as fast as that!"

It's our situation, here

probably, yeah

it's our situation

we have to run as fast as we can to be in
the same place

so, strategy number two is

ostrich algorithm

in the ostrich algorithm

so when the sandstorm comes, ostrich dig in
their head into sand

and wait until the sandstorm ends

so the, the ostrich strategy is ignore everything,
and wait

it is a good strategy

only when situations will recover

so sandstorms will end

so, we will have the clear skies and we

we can enjoy our climate again

but, you know, in our industry

that's not going to happen

where the situation will change and change
and change and not recover

so we, we cannot go back to the main frames

we can go back to the, you know, eighty, fifty
years or something

so we must keep forward, keep going forward

so the ostrich algorithm is very good strategy
in the past

when the situation will recover

so the, this strategy, this algorithm, is
written in our instincts

so we are so easy to choose that strategy

but, otherwise, when the situation will not
recover

it's kind of like the living in the fantasy
land

so, going forward with false assumptions is
kind of like living in the fantasy land

so, ignoring reality

we had two strategies

conservative strategy and ostrich algorithm

which strategy do we take?

neither of them are good

20 years ago

our goal was to create the software, somehow

having computerized system is the power

it is so powerful, the computer itself is
so powerful, comparing to the human creation

??(00:14:05.13)

so it has great power, so software development
was pretty expensive back then

the computers were expensive

the network connection was expensive

the failure never be allowed in that age

so they needed to optimize, not to fail

at the cost of satisfaction

so I don't care you are satisfied our software
or not

but I can re-use some kind of the power of
computers with that computerized system

so everyone was dreaming

we believed that the only way to create software

we tried hard to believe that was the only
way

but 20 years later, now

our goal is not really, not just create a
software

our goal is to create the great software

you know, nowadays everyone has computer,
everyone uses software

so, mere possession is no longer the power

everyone has computer, everyone has software

so we're saved

to differentiate, to have the power over others

we need to create great software, we need
great software

we got to create great software, but how?

of course we don't know

we have made false assumptions

admit our ignorance

but, but there's good news, there's good news

the computers are cheaper

cloud computing is even cheaper

a network connection is cheaper now

and ubiquitous

everyone has imagination

even in this room

software development is cheaper

comparing to twenty-something years ago

so, we can be more productive, more abstract

and we now have better tools and a better
language

like Ruby

and we have a lot of open source software

so we can rely on that kind of software

we can learn from that software

so, old days, it is quite difficult to study
from the real source source code ?? (00:16:41.91)

if you would like to learn about the operating
system

so you cannot access to the source code of,
say, Microsoft Windows

or the ?? (00:17:00.68) or some other operating
system

you, you can access through Linux?? (00:17:08.34)

or the very old version of Linux

but not the real software

but nowadays you can access the Linux

a whole bunch of Linux code and you have tons
of operating systems

and that is used in reality

and

you can use some software in your system

you can learn from that source code

so it's much easier for us to learn and create
the great software

and we can now have the collaboration via
internet

it's, it's changed the game

so, 20 years ago, soon after I graduated the
university

I was at the point I was working as a professional
programmer in enterprise software

I was prohibit to write email abroad, outside
Japan

only 20 years ago - not two hundred years
ago

so, yeah, I, when I was a university student

I wrote some kind of software, free software

it was distributed by, it was quite minor,
you know client on top of ?? (00:18:32.73)

and, I got to mail from some other guys, probably
in the States

I don't remember quite

but

I tried to reply, and soon after that I got
error mail

your company did not pay money to the internet
connection

international internet connection, I mean

so, I forwarded that reply to my friend in
the university

the university pay that kind of bill so that
he could receive the mail

it was quite awkward corresponding, you know

he wrote mail to me then I did not respond

so that, the friend respond because of me
or something like that

but, you know, now we can connect to everyone
all over the world

so we can access through Japan, China, Moscow,
everywhere

so we can now collaborate over the internet

so, that allows us to do some kind of social
coding, so

so, GitHub changed everything

so these good things bring up the new fantasy
land

the new perspective

so we can ignore gory detail of the hardware
or the

and the new operating system, for most of
the cases

we can stand on the shoulders of giants, so
we can use the great huge software

of the operating system, framework, language,
the tools, editors

so a lot of the things

so we can do great things with very little
effort, comparing to the past

so we can do greater work than our real ability,
real power

so, I think the genius 20 years ago does not
recur enough, is not strong enough

they are almost fame ?? (00:21:05.97), the
ability as a human, in genius

but, now, we can rely, we can collaborate,
we can collaborate over internet

we can collaborate on top of open source software,
free software, so

we can do greater works than our past

but that does not mean we are greater

so the situation has changed

we can have power, we can have more freedom

we can have more joy in software

so I remember that the, working on the enterprises
software was not fun

so, it's quite boring, so translating human
sophistication

in human language into the computer language
was so boring

you know, that sophistication once said that,
OK, assign this value to this variable

or something like that, so

why these kind of genius don't write the code
by themselves?

it was quite boring when I was ?? (00:22:49.51)

so now, we can do by ourselves, we can have
joy in our programming

it's kind of like engineers' heaven

that's where we are, and that's why we are
here

but wait, it's still not real

in reality is as conflict as past

so, who maintains this fantasy land?

in reality, we cannot just ignore mess, so
we don't need

something, so, we can ignore or just forget

but something's got to maintain this kind
of a mess

so, it's, so somebody's got to work on that
kind of mess

garbage collectors

no, that's not the garbage that you imagine

for that kind of topic you can go to to the
Koichi talk

so, by the term garbage collector, I meant
this (picture)

and, we have to rely on this kind of people
in our daily life

even in our programming

without them, we would become mess

so welcome to the desert of reality

we rely on garbage collectors

so we'd better appreciate them

we rely on a lot of garbage collectors who
keep the fantasy land

who created your favorite language?

the garbage collector

or, who created your favorite gems?

gem creators, raise your hands

you have to appreciate them (applause)

thank you

who created your favorite frameworks?

who wrote your favorite books? book writers,
raise your hand (applause)

who created your opensource software, we have
tons of open source software

in and out our Ruby community

so we have to appreciate them

so appreciation and respect is the key, I
believe

the key to the open source community

the key to the moving forward

so open source community is kind of like a
shark

(laughs)

we need to keep moving forward, or die

(applause)

so, we have to, and I would advise to you,
keep moving forward

so you have to run as fast as you can to stay
in the same place

and you have to run twice as fast as that
to move forward

so run fast, try often, fail early

keep moving forward, yes, that is my message

and in addition, appreciation is not enough

so, we are not creative to the gem writers

we are not creative to the language designer

we are not creative to the open source software
programmers

so we became one

so, take the red pill

so, you can come join us

if you are a programmer, that's fine, that's
fine you're a programmer

you take a great step to create something

you know, the programmer is a creator

so, you create software, then by your creation

the world will be better, I hope, I really
will hope

the world will be better by your creation

you programmers, you create soft ware, and
you make the world better

but, but you might still living in the fantasy
land

which is kept by the garbage collectors

and if you're willing, I'm not forcing you

if you're willing, you can be one of them

you can be a garbage collector

you don't want?

but this garbage collector is much cleaner

so, be a garbage collector, take part in keeping
the fantasy land

so this fantasy land, unlike the first one,
which ignores everything

so this fantasy land, we currently enjoy is
our result of the effort of the long time

maybe twenty, forty, fifty years of the great
effort of the garbage collectors

so, I, I invite you guys to take part in keeping
the fantasy land

and for example, so you can join the CRuby

even in writing some reporting some issues
the bug trackers or something like that

so, once you know what we garbage collectors
doing behind the CRuby

you can take the, that session

so, again, so I ask you to create a great
fantasy land

currently we enjoy, and it can be even greater
with your effort

so you can do as much, many things, so writing
software on top of Ruby on Rails

or the ?? (00:22:49.51) or something like
that

that will enrich the community and communicate
with blogs, twitter and social net, social

coding

or even, participate in the community, like
the GitHub is our friend

you can do many things, submit bugs, write
documents on the

you know, have a presentation in the conference,
you can

or, write a small piece of software, write
a part in the, submit a ?? (00:31:05.62)

so, so many things you can do, but in any
way create

and try to keep a great fantasy land that
we enjoy

change the world

so, I believe we've changed the world in better
ways

in the past, say, ten years, so

a lot of people in this conference, in the
past Ruby conferences

so presented the great things, so now I expect
even more great work will be introduced in

this conference

so do not be a just a listener

do not be a passive receiver of information

so you hear something in this conference,
you learn something, take action

change the world

so, this is the key of the open source community

this is the key of the Ruby community, so

I know myself, I'm not a great programmer

so, especially the Ruby commuters in the league
knows I'm not a great programmer

I create so many bugs

but, but still, I could, I did great job that
influenced the world

and I respect myself by changing the world
better

so I believe you can do that too in someways

so change the world

thank you

domo arigato