Jack Reichert

Fullstack Philosopher

Category: Musings

  • 5. Take Shortcuts, But Do the Work

    5. Take Shortcuts, But Do the Work

    This essay is part of my 42 Deep Thoughts project. I strongly believe that many of the best qualities in people and in the world, comes from a tension that balances different opposites. My last essay was about taking the scenic routes of life. This value of exploration is balanced, in me, by my drive…

  • 4. Take the Pretty Routes

    4. Take the Pretty Routes

    This essay is part of my 42 Deep Thoughts project. I used to always take the fastest route. Why wouldn’t I want to get to where I’m going quickly? Then I started to take the scenic routes. I discovered that an hour and a half route will only take 15 minutes more, but is 100…

  • 3. Hopes and Dreams are the Fuel

    3. Hopes and Dreams are the Fuel

    This essay is part of my 42 Deep Thoughts project. Dreaming and hoping is what gives you the fuel to achieve anything, or get you anywhere; even through the greatest depths of hell. One of my favorite books, which I go back to every few years, is Man’s Search for Meaning by, Victor Frankel. It’s…

  • 2. Make it Work, Then Make it Work Well

    2. Make it Work, Then Make it Work Well

    This essay is part of my 42 Deep Thoughts project. I came up with this formulation — make it work, then make it work well — when I was getting into web development, and it’s something I’ve been preaching to every team I’ve had the privilege to work with. Perhaps it’s my ADHD, perhaps everyone…

  • 1. Wear Sunscreen

    1. Wear Sunscreen

    This essay is part of my 42 Deep Thoughts project. Originally directed towards the class of ‘97 Mary Schmich wrote an essay which began with these epic words: “Wear sunscreen.” “If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists,…

  • 0. On Being 42, and the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything

    0. On Being 42, and the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything

    As a person who is now 42, I feel like I’m supposed to know all the answers. I remember being nine and thinking that I now have a framework for all knowledge. To clarify, I didn’t think I knew everything, just that I sorta understood how things connected together, and how to fill in the…

  • Star of David

    Star of David

    This is a Star of David. It is a symbol of pride for my people, adopted by the movement born out of our need for self determination in our ancestral homeland after millennia of exile and persecution — the Zionist movement. The chant of hope my people spoke, during the darkest nights, during pogroms, holocaust,…

  • Dignity in Tech

    Dignity in Tech

    In my senior year of high school I taught myself HTML. That was right after HTML4 came out, and it made more complicated web designs possible. I had to lay out images using tables, but I could still do it. I was learning Pascal in school and took to coding like a dog to a…

  • A Year of Shakespeare

    A Year of Shakespeare

    I spent this past year reading all the plays of Shakespeare. Each has five acts, a play runs 2-3 hours, an act can be read in 30-45 minutes. There are 38 plays, so you can read a play a week and finish well within a year. I spent most evenings reading an act, often listening…

  • Buds of Spring

    Buds of Spring

    Buds of spring are always delicate, regardless of the age of the tree.