Adam Noto Hakarsa / Logs

Hi there! Hi, WordPress. Hi, the World. And Hi, Harvard.

First of all, my name is Adam Notodikromo. Actually, that’s my nom de plume, although, really, I have been hoping that to be my real name. But, “what’s in a name?” right? Juliet rhetorically asked Romeo. She argued further, “that which we call a rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet.”

I have a book written under my current-tho-not-legal name. It’s a book about web programming using Rails 6, which I had published in the year COVID-19 was still a fresh thing. It’s still fresh. I used the time otherwise used for commuting, to write a book I hope would be of value to new web engineers interested to learn about Rails. Fortunately, the publisher allowed me to have the book hit the shelf with the name I wanted to be associated the most with.

It seems like, someday, I will have to legally change my name.

Oh… how it has been awhile. I missed this classic WordPress user interface. I missed this blogging experience. The look and feel. The smell (there isn’t). I remember the first time I had a blog, and that is when I was a junior high school student. It was around 2006 or something.

At first, I played around with Blogspot. It was fun to modify the blog that I had, add widgets here and there, go around someone’s blogs and left some comments—and if I were lucky enough, I would have made some friends along the way, which means, we could then list each other’s blog to a hall-of-fame kind-of section we called blogroll. Aaah, gone are those days.

Not long after, I was excited I could rent a server to host my blog. And so, after the Friday prayer and having lost my shoes, I announced to the world of my blog. It was so fun to be able to customize the layout (but this time, a WordPress blog!), install some plugins (something Blogspot users just couldn’t), and (again) re-index my blogs to those search engines, and directories (things of the past, for sure).

And that was the first time I saw a little bit of PHP, in action, too. Well, I have seen a little bit of PHP when I was an elementary school student, but, to setup a web server was something altogether out of my league. I’d need to setup a MySQL database, download and configure the Apache server stack myself, and doing that on a Windows machine. Not great. Resources about setting them up, in my native Indonesian, were just scarce. And there was nothing like Google Translate. But that being said, I was a money-making Visual Basic 6.0 11-years-old programmer back then. No doubt, desktop programming with VB6 was so easy for me that I could made an app for a university, and earned some money. Yeah!

How much? well, not so much, I actually made so much more by selling beverages at my elementary school. But that time I knew I wanted to be a software engineer just even more. I also earned some Rupiah teaching my neighbour’s kid (and my brother) some VB6 programming, but yeah. He (and my brother) just couldn’t get it, or I was a bad teacher, or both.

So yeah, I was blogging around that time too. And I am really happy to finally blogging again. Really. And this time, I promise I will not leave you, WordPress. I am so happy that we can meet again.

Wait, that’s a dialogue between me, and… no one, but, a WordPress blog. Maybe it’s a monologue.

A blog is a monologue. Well, okay okay, except the comments section. And pingbacks (are they still a thing?)

And you know what? I missed traveling so much. I should have traveled to Seoul by now. Or Vladivostok. I love traveling the world. But, the world has, since December 2019, been in an alternating state between open-and-lock, office-and-home, physical-and-metaphysicalremote. Nevertheless, I hope to reach out to the world through this blog.

In this blog, I’d like to share my travels. My thoughts (whatever that is). My attempts, especially those related to this problem that software engineering should not be an exclusive place for the relatively affluent family that can afford that kind of tutoring for their children.

Anyway… let me recall a story about the kind of world I understand when I was an elementary school student. Should I?

So… when I was a 2nd-grader, I had my first ever philosophical question. That day, my Indonesian language teacher wanted us to read a story written in our book. The story was about a farmer. We were then required to extract something out of the text, or locate something therein such as the day of some events, where was the farmer, the farmer’s name and so on. Then she, my teacher, was like: “that’s it everyone, in addition to that: humans are social creatures. What does that mean? That means, we depend on each other. It’s not possible, for example, for someone to farm the foods all by themselves, or basically, do something in this world without anyone’s help. That’s why we call ourselves social beings.”

My name is Adam, and I don’t easily accept ideas without testing them to the max. And of course, little me had this thinking of: okay, teacher, I’ll show you that I can do it all by myself. Why would it be impossible to fulfill one’s needs without the help of anyone. We are humans.

Exactly. We are humans. We love to make connections (and! disconnections). In this world, nothing is more exciting than to be able to form connections with other humans. A true connection like that of a friend. Oh… this world would be just so much more beautiful if we can trust each other in full, wouldn’t it?

But, what do we need to be able to form a respectful, trust-based relationship?

Yes: truth! No other than that.

Truth is the basis of everything. Our computers think in terms of truth, expressed in boolean logic. If it is 0, it is a no no. If it is 1, it is “yeah, go ahead!” A simple premise upon which our digital world is essentially built upon. “Give me this arrangement of true-and-false’s and I shall print that letter ‘a’ on the screen,” our processor would demand to the software so the letter can be formed across those pixels.

Truth is everything. In fact, this is why I love Harvard. I have always wanted to be a Harvard student, but I was just, quite shy to apply. Also, I thought Harvard would only be for those with the tag. For those of you who think that way, let me say it: I was wrong. If you think you’re of a Harvard material, there’s no reason to shy away from it. You’ll be challenged since day 1, and I sure believe you will love the challenge.

Anyway!

The truth is the building block for understanding the reality. The very ve-ri-tas printed large on the Harvard’s shield means so much to me personally.

I grew up in Indonesia. A country that was colonized for 4 years according to the most conservative calculation. Or, 350 years if we calculate it from the time the richest company that has ever existed, yet, in the history of mankind, begun their trade-flavored colonization (or, colonization-flavored trade?). Born in the circumstance, I am willing enough to get to know of what was actually going on. I traveled to countries like the Netherlands and Japan to try to understand the country, and the psyche of the locals.

And yet, to understand the truth is not easy. Sometimes, we attached our feelings a great deal on a subjective subject, such as history; making it even harder to reveal it raw. Humans are créatures sociales after all. But, even so, the truth shall prevail. Bending the truth instead of taking it as-is is faulty; and futile. It has always resulted in failures as the truth often is the backbone of reality, including science and also that of engineering.

On top of that, the truth often is not easy to get. We may have to come all the way from one side of the world to another. I left Indonesia and living amongst the Japanese for a time. I went to Malaysia and study at a local university with majority Chinese people. I remember of this movie I used to watch when I was a kid, about a Buddhist monk traveled all the way to get to the truth. Along the way, there are so many tests the monk had to endure. If you have done your parts on getting to the truth, you sure know what it is like.

With that, acquiring the truth may thus in itself entail extravagant cost. Imagine a double-agent spy who risked their life to get the truth. Well, that’s probably not a good example, but that highlighted the fact that the truth could even cost one’s own life. Let’s remember Galileo’s conflict with the church for a moment.

Yet, in all likelihood; we should always strive to understand the truth in its entirety as-is.

Unfortunately however, questioning for the sake of the truth can result in adverse feedbacks.

Yet, we shall always remember that if we keep the truth as-is, the truth shall keep us fine.

In my mind, Harvard is an environment that place utmost respect for the truth. It’s there! Printed large on the crimson coat. I have only big hope for my years at Harvard. Will it, whatever I will learn, be as close as possible to the truth? Will the institution everyone so honor, actually place a limit on the kind of questions one can ask? Will tutors got upset if one has to debate or even correct them in the class?

That remains to be seen. And I am here to witness.

One thing is for sure by now, that by the Extension School, Harvard has made it possible for people from all walks of life to get closer to the truth on such democratic terms from anywhere in the world. That’s something worth to be celebrated and praised highly.

I will only hope to use the knowledge I’d have gained to be more respectful of the duty I (think I) have: helping spread the truth further, so that the fruits can reach the hands of as many people as circumstances allowed, regardless of their socio-economic backgrounds.

And I intended to use this blog to record that journey of mine.