Can’t Quit Coding, huh? What's this all about?
I'm a web developer by trade. It's paid the bills and helped me raise a beautiful family.
I write code => day-in —> day out ;)
I've learned some cool hacks and tricks over the years working with computers and the web — and I plan to share all of them right here on CantQuitCoding.com for the world to enjoy.
More than a pixel-pusher...
Sure, this site contains lots of cool info about HTML, CSS, JS, PHP, and SVG. All languages the push pixels — some more than others (I'm looking at you CSS). But it goes beyond that. Bear with me hear.
One day, I had an epiphany.
Not sure if it was something I read, or the my right-brain just kinda made the connection in it's spare time.
The origins are a mystery — but the idea is crystal clear.
Written language — the alphabet — is the single greatest database every invented.
There, I said it.
Some may stumbled on the word "database." Others may argue that SQL is better.
Both must consider that neither can exist without the written language.
- You're reading, understanding, and comprehending these words now because of the alphabet.
- You got here on your digital screen because of the alphabet — both through your search terms AND through the underlying code that makes it all work.
- The gradual build-up of the technology that even allows this incredible access to information to occur was only possible because...of the alphabet.
There is no computer lanuage available — nor will there ever be — that's as simple & elegant as the alphabet.
26 simple glyphs
Narrowing it down to just English, it's a collection of 26 characters (glyphs) that can be assembled in an infinite number of arrangements to convey a meaning that others can understand. Through writing, you can store your memory externally — on paper, or the internet, etc.
Through writing, you essentially export your consciousness — memories, ideas, stories — then save that knowledge potentially forever to share with potentially anyone. When others read our writing, they download our memory/idea/story (our consciousness) into their memories (their consciousness). It's so amazing when you think about it.
Before writing existed, to share any information with anyone, you could only do it through word of mouth to people you saw face-to-face. For most of human history, we lived in small tribes as hunter-gatherers and cave-folk. Knowledge was only passed on to fellow members of one’s tribe (family and close friends). A son would only know what his father remembered from what his father directly told him, etc. But with writing, that son could know what his great-great-great-great-great-grandfather knew.
When you think about it, all the greatest technological inventions (since writing) have been those that figured out how to more easily spread writing and thus knowledge. By sharing knowledge, we learn faster and can build on the knowledge of those that came before us. To create new and better technology and more knowledge to boot!
Mankind’s Timeline
It's easy to forget that writing and the alphabet were born from sounds. There's no way to know how long we’ve been talking since speech itself doesn't leave any tracks — other than a very long time.
- A study on brain regions used during speech and while doing a cave-man worthy job of knapping flint — otherwise known as making arrowheads — showed remarkable similarities. Enough so for the study's authors to give us a ballpark figure of 1.75 million years ago when human language started to develop. We were still great apes at that point. Checkout more about the study if you're interested.
- Currently, the fossil record has modern humans stepping on the scene >= 190k years ago.
- Cave art dates back > 44k years in both France & Indonesia
- 6k years ago, around 3200 B.C. ancient Sumerians invented Cuniform, the first known written language that merchants used to scratch various wedges into clay tablets for record keeping.
- Basically, we've only been writing for about 4% of human existance.