Whyday

Yesterday, my friend Chad Fowler wrote:

Happy #whyday people! Maybe not teaching children, but teaching adults today at @pragmaticstudio. #whyday project next week.

And here’s a similar tweet from Bob Martens:

Happy #whyday people! I’m going to have to postpone my work while we move, but I want to put out some Ruby stuff soon!

This morning there have been others in the same vein.

The purpose of Whyday—at least, my purpose for Whyday—was not merely to remember _why the person. It was to fan the flames of the why-ish spirit in the Ruby community (and in the larger programming community as well) so that we don’t forget the kind of creativity, playfulness, and joy that _why brought to us.

If we put that spirit away because it’s not August 19th anymore, that would really miss the point.

If you started something yesterday, but didn’t get as far on it as you’d hoped … keep hacking on it!

If you’ve got the start of something but don’t have much time to proceed … throw it open and see if anyone else would like to help!

And if, for some reason, you couldn’t set aside time yesterday to celebrate … there’s always today, tomorrow, next week, and next month!

I started my own Whyday project, but I didn’t get as much done as I’d hoped, because I was having too much fun spreading the word about what others were doing. But I’m going to continue working on it. Yesterday was just the start!