In the middle of explaining my thesis project to a usability expert at
IBM, I realized that I *have* actually managed to build something
interesting. As I explained the problem to him and showed how this
problem would be addressed using the existing tools, I realized that
there was a real problem and that my prototype might be a step in the
right direction. And my demo didn’t fall apart, either! Whew!

When you’re too close to something, you can find it difficult to
appreciate. I tend to err on the side of downplaying the coolness of
what I’m working on. I keep telling myself: It’s just a protottype. I
don’t have the data I need to make it truly useful. It’s nowhere near
as cool as the thing that I really wanted to build if I had the data.

Well, forget that! If I can show my prototype to someone and get them
excited about the idea of Web 2.0, if the way that I visualize things
will make someone campaign for adoption even in a small group…
that’ll so be worth it.

Wow. I have a project after all!

Random Emacs symbol: mail-extr-disable-voodoo – Variable: *If it is a regexp, names matching it will never be modified.