When I was an undergrad I was really affected by Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. And I had been going through Plato and the early philosophers. I was, at that point, inclined more towards idealism in some philosophical sense. I thought little-endian byte order was superior to big-endian, because after all, the least significant digits are in the lowest address—there was some kind of harmony or geometry in that. But try reading a hex dump. Practical things matter; particulars matter. The famous School of Athens painting with Aristotle pointing down and Plato pointing up—I'm
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very well-rounded interests
