230425-index

mushy boundaries. have tasks in two languages that differ in a way that has me questioning basic reality in somewhat boring ways (and i am here to tell you about it i am so sorry).

zero-based numbering [web] is a certain way of thinking about arrays (tables of numbers): the first element is zero, not one. this makes sense for various reasons we will not explore.

every morning i grind coffee for what i imagined to be thirty seconds. granted the tempo slides all over the place and i usually lose count and estimate but i absolutely positively always START at 1 and triumphantly END at 30. if i actually believed thirty seconds elapsed, with perfect timing, i'd still be wrong.

it'd only be 29, because i'm starting at one, not zero. i'm counting the intervals between announcing each boundary, and as such come up one short if one is the start.

granted, counting is often not about precise time, but maybe if we knew to start at zero we'd be less angry on reaching 10, or our friends might find better hiding places.

tehn@nnnnnnnn.co