One of the things I tell myself is that many of these very difficult experiences were also growing ones for me. I, of course, would prefer that the friends and family I lost or who got sick were still here and healthy. But I also have a greater empathy and understanding when I interact with other people going through these same tribulations.

> It's interesting to hear how you had the code pegged down for this book at the start. The book definitely feels like the result of such considered and planned design.

I basically had to write it this way. My previous book was like a recipe book where each chapter is relatively unconnected so I could just start writing. But this book walks through two complete implementations of the same language, which I also designed for the book. So just about any tiny change to anything can affect very distant chapters.

I wasn't even sure if the book would hang together until I designed the language and wrote the code. If I couldn't get to a little toy language I liked or if the implementations had been a sprawling mess, I would have passed on the project. But a couple months in, everything kind of clicked and I realized I basically had to the write the book. It's like the thing was already there and I was just responsible for putting it all down on paper.

> I also attempt that in my writing, but almost always end up dragging myself down rabbit holes, including rewriting/renaming/restructuring entire code scripts/snippets, if not the project codebases that I've drafted and refer to.

I do a lot of that too. Fortunately, having the code pinned down helps. I basically can't touch the code now because doing so would destabilize existing chapters. The fact that I publish incrementally also keeps me from endlessly noodling.

But it is always a struggle to rein myself in and stay focused on making forward progress.