Mitzi the cat

This week I’d like to share a story that I’ve chosen to take as inspiration, even though to others it may seem distasteful. Warning: This story is not good for cat-lovers!

It’s a small detail from the book Masters of Doom. If you’re interested in the story behind Doom, or just interested in how great gaming successes are made, it’s a book I recommend.

---

Carmack is on the far left.

The heroic programmer John Carmack has cemented his place in video game history by programming the all-important 3D engine for the original Doom. Since then he’s worked on many other momentous things, but today’s story comes from the early 90s when he was still relatively unknown.

From the official Wolfenstein 3D Hint Manual.

When Carmack first left home to be a programmer, he had scant few possessions. A lamp, a pillow, a blanket, and a stack of books were all he needed. He didn’t even have a mattress. The only thing he brought with him from home was a cat, Mitzi. She was a gift from his step-family, and for many years she slept on his monitor, overseeing historic games like the Commander Keen series and Wolfenstein 3D. Apparently she was even listed on the company’s directory as his significant other.

Masters of Doom tells us that Mitzi was ill-tempered and known to pee on things, but for years Carmack endured her behaviour. It might seem like this otherwise unsentimental programmer was too attached to get rid of Mitzi. Perhaps she was a comforting reminder of home and his step-family.

One day, however, Mitzi peed all over a leather sofa that Carmack had bought with money from Wolfenstein 3D. Despite the years of companionship the cat had given him, he decided to take her to the animal shelter. When Carmack broke the news of his decision to the rest of the Doom team, he told them:

Mitzi was having a net negative impact on my life.

John Carmack

---

I mention this story not because I hate cats, but because I find something strangely virtuous about John Carmack’s unsentimental approach. Many of Carmack’s traits serve him well as a programmer, and I think this is one of them. Whilst it may not apply to cats, his ruthless policy of getting rid of anything that no longer provides value has obvious uses in programming, or any challenging project.

Recently I’ve programmed the sixth iteration of the process that generates planet terrain in Super Space Galaxy. Doing this has meant that I had to remove the old iteration and un-do a lot of hard work. If I’d been too attached to the old system, I would have stopped Super Space Galaxy from becoming significantly better.

Even to write these blog posts, I sometimes have to delete well-written paragraphs that are getting in the way of the flow of the post. Though on some level I’m sad to see them go, the post is actually better off without them! Some posts have as many deleted paragraphs as they have surviving ones. In a way, each rejected paragraph is a minor ‘Mitzi’ I must get rid of if I want things to get better.

That’s why when I have a tough decision to make, I try to think of what John Carmack would do. Would he cling to the remnants of the past after they’ve ceased to be useful? Or, like the unfortunate Mitzi the cat, would he decide they’d become a ‘net negative’?

Thanks for reading,

Kenneth Dunlop