Ten thousand lines

The bodhisattva once said to a visiting programmer: “There is more enlightenment in one line of Ruby than there is in ten thousand lines of C.”

The bodhisattva, who was very proud of his mastery of C, said: “How can this be? C is the language in which Ruby is implemented!”

The bodhisattva replied: “That is so. Nevertheless, there is more enlightenment in one line of Ruby than there is in ten thousand lines of C.”

The programmer grew distressed. “But through the C language we become as one with the operating system and the machine, reaping matchless performance!”

The bodhisattva replied: “All that you say is true. But there is still more enlightenment in one line of Ruby than there is in ten thousand lines of C.”

The programmer scoffed at the bodhisattva and rose to depart. But the bodhisattva nodded to his student, who wrote a line of Ruby on a nearby whiteboard, and said: “Master programmer, consider this code. Implemented in pure C, would it not span ten thousand lines?”

The programmer muttered through his beard, contemplating what the student had written. Finally he agreed that it was so.

“And how many hours would you require to implement and debug that C program?” asked the student.

“Many,” admitted the visiting programmer. “But only a fool would spend the time to do that when so many more worthy tasks await him.”

“And who better understands enlightenment?” The bodhisattva asked. “Is it he who writes the ten thousand lines, or he who, perceiving the emptiness of the task, gains merit by not coding?”

Upon hearing this, the programmer was enlightened.

- Adapted from Rootless Root by Eric S. Raymond