I just spent some time trying to work with NewLisp, then Scheme, then Common Lisp and, while those platforms have their merits, they aren't for me. At least not when I have a burning need to get some work done.
This has significant speedup on my machine, of course if you need some gems then you shouldn't do this.
Consider also:
– crystal (compiled ruby-like, but not Ruby per se)
– mruby (lightweight Ruby)
I haven't managed to get mruby to do what I want with a YAML gem, but that's OK since all this is just premature optimization instead of writing the software I need to write.
But I'm gradually learning that good enough isfine and that progressis more important thanperfect, and that perfect is the enemy ofdone.
These are sayings that I have posted above my desk at work; none of my co-workers have really noticed them, but they're nice to have around. They're useful reminders.
But the best cure for my be good, my always proving myself, and my I must beperfectall of the time default mindset, is this classic lecture by Dr. Heidi Grant (start at 19sec):
It's life-changing.
In short, if you're like me and don't have time for a 20-minute video, science shows that people tend to have two mindsets:
Be good mindset: everything I do is about demonstrating competence; everyone is judging me all of the time.
Get better mindset: I'm here to learn, I'm here to get better, challenges are good, growing is good; so long as I'm learning (and I'm doing better than yesterday—or last week), I'm doing OK.
If you've ever read or heard of the book Mindset by Carol Dweck, it's the same as what she talked about with growth mindsets (get better) and fixed mindsets (be good). However, I find Dr. Heidi Grant's work much more accessible; I've gotten alot further reading her book Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals than I ever did with Dweck's book. Dr. Grant's audience is much more mainstream then Dweck's.
This philosophy, this belief, this faith is the underlying bedrock of this blog: that each one of us can work hard, improve our skills a little bit, and do it all over again tomorrow. And, in a month or a year we won't believe how far we've come.