Steer With Your Eyes

Independently created as: BodyFollowsEyes

To ride a motorcycle fast and well, make sure you look where you want to go: around the next corner, not into the barrier in front of you. When your body is sufficiently trained, it will subconsciously move on the bike to bring it in the direction you're looking, better than you can do consciously. A good race rider might have her head turned at sixty degrees from the axis of the bike to look right through the corner.

It's good to occasionally flick your eyes down onto possible risks such as other vehicles or potholes, so that you're aware of them. If you fixate on them, you'll hit them: having recognized the risk you have to look away to the place you want to go instead. It takes a bit of getting used to.

"don't look at the obstacles - look at the space defined by the obstacles."

This is a DrivingMetaphor something like OneHandOnTheYoke: I'm not sure if it's a very good metaphor for software. Perhaps if people worry too much about a risk like portability then they'll cause problems by inserting too many shields?

To my mind, SteerWithYourEyes works because when you do so, you tend to DoTheSimplestThingThatCouldPossiblyWork. Don't fixate on the pothole or the barrier or the other rider; if you ride the right line, all the extra attention spent is merely a distraction and YouArentGonnaNeedIt.

I was once driving around a TrafficCircle when my wife tried to feed me a grape. She could be (positively) characterized as 'prudent', 'cautious' or 'safety-minded'. That's why while attempting to feed me the grape, she tried to keep her eyes on the road ('for me' presumably.) Naturally, she was following the road; the grape was following her; I was following the grape and the car was following me. And that is the story of how my car once followed a grape. http://www.smurp.com

CategoryStory

Subject: Re: [XP] The definition of a user

From: Lynn, James

> So you are seriously suggesting that Nathan should drive to work with his eyes closed? That is even more ridiculous.

It's actually an obscure literary reference to a small, thin book called /Jonathan Livingston Seagull Explained/.

In this book, "learning to drive" is a great big metaphor. The protagonist, Jon, tries to learn how to drive his Mustang around the beach. The metaphor refers to conducting a software project by aiming it at a goal, collecting feedback, and controlling the steering wheel until the goal is reached.

Jon discovers, after many experiments, that if he keeps his eyes open he can see where he's going when he drives.

Unfortunately, before discovering this he drives over the flock elders, and they downsize him. But then he goes to mentoring newbies at a startup, and they all ride a successful IPO to the next dimension of existence.

-- PhlIp

Wow, I'm surprised anyone got it! -- Ron

I saw this formulated as "BodyFollowsEyes," but I can't remember where... :)

Also see: HandsInView EyeAndHand HandVsPointer