Value of Waiting

"Vladimir: What do we do now?
Estragon: Wait.
Vladimir: Yes, but while waiting.
Estragon: What about hanging ourselves?
Vladimir: Hmm. It'd give us an erection.
Estragon: (highly excited). An erection!"

― Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

Godot Engine is a prime example of a project which sees great value in waiting. Some might say that this shouldn’t be taken seriously, and that a project’s name doesn’t necessarily represent the values behind it. This might be true under other circumstances, but in the case of Godot Engine, the name “Godot” has a tangible meaning and suggests a peculiar sense of worth.

Picture by Juan Linietsky. Source: Twitter

For those who are not familiar with the origin of Godot, the engine’s name is derived from the tragicomedy “Waiting for Godot” by Samuel Beckett, which, according to the lead developer of Godot Engine, Juan Linietsky, represents the never-ending wish of adding new features in the engine, which would get it closer to an exhaustive product, but never will¹.

Here’s a quote from Juan regarding Waiting for Godot:

In my mind, the most beautiful aspect about Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" is that for every cast and staging it's like an entirely different play, as both actors and direction each end up having their own unique interpretation of the original script. pic.twitter.com/EVnkhsMNFo

— Juan Linietsky (@reduzio) November 26, 2021

Hopefully it should be clear by now that the choice of this name is intentional. Taking Juan’s analogy further, it becomes apparent that people who use Godot and contribute to its development are expected to have a different interpretation of Godot’s approach. The irony is that this expectation is obvious only to its creator and to those who have actually seen the play.

Here’s another quote from Juan²:

In a bizarre twist of fate, at some point and well into the development of the engine, we played a video game with a character that formed that connection (bonus points to anyone who figures it out), so the engine is also named in honor to that. This is good, because the original Godot was never supposed to arrive (well, that’s one interpretation…).

At first, this freedom of interpretation may feel appealing to the outsider. Who doesn’t value freedom? But unfortunately, this supposed freedom actually proliferates frivolity. When we combine waiting, ambiguity, and the novelty of adding new features, it engenders a sense of anticipation. Anticipation is the expectation of a reward. This is particularly interesting because uncertainty, a prominent element of the waiting experience, has been shown to sensitize dopamine neurons, which can lead to various behavioral addictions, such as gambling³.

There also exist numerous reasons as to why we wait. Here’s one of the reasons outlined in the sociological research article “Waiting in organisations”⁴, which can be readily applied to Godot, especially considering the context of the same analogy used from “Waiting for Godot”:

Anticipatory waiting entails waiting for something that is hoped-for, such as a piece of good news, the delivery of some new equipment, or a colleague’s return from annual leave. In such cases, waiting is likely to be experienced eagerly and as full of hope. However, Vladimir and Estragon’s experiences show how such anticipation may fade over time and turn to cynicism and despair.

Here’s another quote from the same article above that further reinforces the conclusions about the dependency caused by a sense of anticipation:

Waiting can be conceptualised as an unevenly distributed exercise of power, since it is often the case that the powerless are made to wait for the powerful, the poor for the wealthy. To wait is to be made aware of one’s dependence on another. However, waiting can also be joyous and full of anticipation, even when the waiting takes place in unpleasant physical conditions, such as is experienced by those waiting in crowds for the glimpse of a passing celebrity, or for the launch of the latest i-Phone. Thus, the subjective experience of waiting is likely to vary according to a range of individual and environmental conditions.

As the saying goes: “Desires are nourished by delays”. The longer we wait for something, the more we want it. We can also draw a useful analogy if we take Buddhism: “Desire and ignorance lie at the root of suffering”.

Jordan Peterson, renowned for his perspectives on psychological, cultural and political matters, also employed a reference to “Waiting for Godot” as an analogy in the video titled “The Importance Of Pursuing Your Goals”⁵, [emphasis mine]:

[…] they wait around until it’s Waiting for Godot until they finally got it right but the problem is you’re too stupid to know when you’ve got it right so waiting around isn’t going to help because even if the perfect opportunity manifested itself to you in your incomplete form the probability that you would recognize it as the perfect opportunity is zero […]

The leadership at Godot frequently makes enigmatic references to waiting for Godot, alluding to the line “Mr. Godot told me to tell you he won’t come this evening, but surely tomorrow,” from Waiting for Godot. This is evident in these clips:

Not today, but surely tomorrow. https://t.co/xMX0pf9NbZ pic.twitter.com/iRSSFjQIly

— Andrii Doroshenko 🇺🇦 (@Xrayez) March 23, 2024

Conclusion

We have inferred the project’s values from its name alone, and you can see how much information we have got so far. Imagine that you didn’t really intend to convey such a message to the worldwide community! That’s exactly why it’s so important to reveal our values, assumptions, beliefs, and expectations.

This characterization provides a thorough examination of Godot’s values from an external perspective, although the author of this book has both external and internal perspectives.

From the perspective of a Godot user, these values may go unnoticed, or they may mistakenly believe that having such values do not have any adverse effects on Godot’s development process and the community as a whole. But taking into account all above, Godot’s apparent values go in complete opposition to what this books aims to resolve: ambiguity and uncertainty.

Waiting inevitably arises from the unfulfilled desires caused by the product’s perpetual state of incompleteness, which anticipates the product which is never going to be finished (by the very definition expressed by Godot’s lead developer), resulting in an unsatisfactory waiting experience.

At the same time, it’s also interesting to observe how Godot’s leadership attempts to alleviate this adversity through the use of jokes as a coping mechanism, as you’ll discover later in this book.

References