New Toy

I got some software today. Well, I've been configuring and reconfiguring my computer for days, backing it up, coaxing it, stroking it, and hoping that it doesn't implode (4 and a half years old in computer years, so, what, 89 in people years? poor thing) - and now I am getting to mess with this software. I went through all eight of the tutorials for the software. This is a big thing for those who know me - read directions? Pah. Instructions manual? For looooosers! I understand the limitations of this strategy. I really, really do! It's still my impulse, though.

So, this software is, without a doubt, quite an incredible tool. It helps me build algorithms, run complicated simulations for long periods of time, look at the probability distributions of the results, and zoom in really far to get nit picky about minute changes in various aspects of the models.

Well, that's what this software is capable of. I am still working out how to use it. And my day can pretty accurately be described as me bouncing around the office (in my head - I don't actually bounce. I try to keep it as professional as I am capable of. Funny things happen when I'm tired and slip up, though. Good thing we're a startup.) and yelling "I got a new toy! I got a new toy! It's so powerful! Do you know how many THINGS it can do???" and then, in this simulation in my head, I have an enormous machine with an enormous amount of buttons and I have an enormous amount of ideas of what I want to do with this machine - and I run to it, look around, get confused, run away, repeat, repeat, repeat and eventually run towards it so excitedly that I bang my head on a protruding arm and fall over, mumbling to myself about how incredible this tool is, if only I knew how to use it.

So, what's the lesson? I do want to jump in and model the huge project I've been building up to all summer but REALLY, I ought to start with baby tasks until I understand how to use this crazy thing. The great part is that even the pathetically simple tasks that I have to start with are still a lot of fun for someone like me.