In the early programming days, back when the language was called BASIC, there was a instruction that has since become deprecated. That command is called LET. Because language parsers were simpler back then, there needed to be a way to identify assignment of a value to a variable. Nowadays, you just say x=1 and assignment is understood. However, saying x=1 could imply comparison, resulting in a true or false value. To avoid that ambiguity, in the past, you had to say LET x=1.
I started off with that little history lesson to say that I was listening to a recently purchased CD and a song title was “LET X=X”. Since I was driving while the song was playing, I couldn’t really make out any of the lyrics, but the title gave me plenty to think about.
A programming statement like that is pretty useless. It changes nothing. And that thought is somewhat powerful. Telling someone “LET X=X” could be saying “Leave things alone.” or “Don’t change a thing.” Or you could be a bit more philosophical about it, applying a Que Sera Sera viewpoint to it – whatever happens, will happen.
So I looked up the lyrics and to me, they don’t make any sense. But whatever, that artist rarely makes any sense to me. But I got my own meaning out of the title, and I think that makes up for any confusion.
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