Re: secret of Carstens speed

["Carsten Dominik" <dominik@science.uva.nl>]

On 12/2/07, Rustom Mody <rustompmody@gmail.com> wrote:
> I know this is somewhat OT but... Gawd Carsten you are just too fast!
> We newbies cant keep up with learning org mode with the speed with
> which you produce it! I donwloaded one tgz yesterday (my 2nd download
> in a month, 3rd if I count the 4.67c that comes with bundled with
> etch) and theres a new one today!
>
> Can we have some tips on your productivity? Yeah sure you use emacs
> and org-mode but there must be other things as well I guess.
> What emacs modes do you (most) use.
> What are the other aspects/steps of your toolchain for rolling out a
> new release?
> etc etc

Hi Rustom,

Well, a good friend of mine saw this question from you today,
and she was kind enough to suggest to me:

> maybe you should confess that you are working on org mode
> whenever you want to avoid doing other more urgent things...

Well, think it is definitely true that I am using Org-mode to
procrastinate.

On a bright note, I believe that you can easily be efficient at
doing what you love to do. I get a big kick out of creating and
maintaining this community, there a few things I enjoy more.

To answer your question more seriously:

Much of the development around Org-mode is organized around
mail.  All mails that com into emacs-orgmode I immediately sort
into bugs, other ideas I'd like to at least think about, and stuff
I don't need to do anything about (thanks to people like Bastien...)

I do have a 1 hour train ride to work and another hour back, and I
tend to spend at least one of these valuable, completely un-interrupted
time slots working on Org-mode.  Plus one of two evenings a week.
I try very hard to not do anything on it at work except for an
occasional email.

I have set things up so that releasing and uploading a new version
is as easy as

  make relup TAG=5.16

so it is easy to do.

My computer setup:  I do work mostly on a MacBook Pro, with
x11 installed, using an X11 version of Emacs - I've spent too
many years in that environment to give that up easily.

I am not a touch typer, I use 6-8 Fingers and make lots of mistakes
as all of you know who have tried to read and fix my documentation.

So there is no secret at all, it is just the joy of doing it, the drive
of feedback from you all, and a bit of addiction.
Well, there are worse things one could be addicted to...

- Carsten