Perseverance

I’ve been completely preoccupied with this RISC OS SMB client retrofitting project, which is right at the boundary of what I’m comfortable working with as an individual coding project.

A big challenge is estimating how many hours and days of work I have remaining. There are large source files in the original Apple code that support all sorts of advanced features that aren’t relevant at all, so I have the more artistic and fun challenge of writing my own, compact versions of the logic to open, close, read, write, mount, dismount, etc. adapted to RISC OS’s “FileSwitch” virtual FS interface.

I have this vision in my mind of what the final product is going to look like, and I’m attempting to will that future into being, not just for the joy of working on an interesting coding project, nor the monetary reward for completing the work items on the bounty that the community have contributed towards, but also to “put a dent in the universe”, as the late Steve Jobs said, by creating something that didn’t exist before and might not have if not for my efforts.

The trick is to get into that “envisioning” mindset without falling into egotism about the benefits of success, or despair that you might not accomplish the goal.