Programming

The other day I re-discovered this post by Joel Spolsky on Hacker News, entitled " Victory Lap for Ask Patents." I saw it when he originally posted it a while back, but it didn’t resonate with me at the time.

But re-reading it today, I realized how great an opportunity we, as software developers, have to force patent reform by actively contributing to this project. Ask Patents, if you haven’t heard of it, is a StackExchange site where you can ask questions about patents, or, in my case, respond to requests for prior art that invalidate an overly-broad patent. In my case, I focus on software patents.

You might want to grab a cup of coffee #

My last article about the importance of getting started on your programming education is my most-read article on Medium so far. Like anything in my life, my writing is an experiment. When I see as many people getting excited about programming as I have because of this, it excites me too, and tells me I’ve hit a nerve.