U1FFF: and the winner is...
   ===========================

You might remember I launched U1FFF: the 1st Unix 1-Liner Five Fridays
Funfair a few weeks ago:

   gopher://republic.circumlunar.space/0/~katolaz/phlog/U1FFF.txt
   gopher://katolaz.net/1/U1FFF_2020/

which is exactly what it says: a Funfair about Unix CLI one-liners. This
actually attracted some interest, and several people placed their stalls
at the Funfair:

  gopher://katolaz.net/1/U1FFF_2020/entries.gph

Awesome stuff indeed, and a lot to read and learn for unix enthusiasts.
You should definitely have a look.

Now that you have read so far, I must confess that the title of this
phlog is intentionally misleading: I won't make a ranking of the best
entries in the Funfair. But please read on.

What stroke me the most about U1FFF was that a handful of people (but
none of the participants), asked me "BTW, how did it go with the unix
one-liner funfair thing?  It was supposed to end a few weeks ago
already, and I haven't seen a phlog about it from you...".

This is quite strange. It is like we as humans are so used to the common
competition framework (rules-submissions-deadline-ranking-awards) that
we find it quite hard to do anything meaningful outside it. And you are
most probably reading this phlog mainly because the title says "and the
winner is..."

This was indeed the core of the U1FFF experiment: I set rules and
deadlines, people sent their submissions, but there is no ranking and no
prize. This lack of a final award does not diminish by a single bit the
awesomeness and beauty of the Funfair, of its stalls and incantations.
The quality and beauty of the one-liners is in there and will remain in
there, whatever an asshole like me could think about which particular
trick was the best in town. The funfair is not over. It is there for
people to enjoy, if they want.

Life would be probably much easier and much more fun if we stop craving
for the approval of somebody else and we focus instead on getting joy
and satisfaction out of the simple fact of doing something we care
about, for the sake of it :)

HND