6 ms·

A competent programmer knows that tomatoes are fruits. A proficient programmer doesn't put tomatoes in a fruit salad. :)

by yawz 10y ago

the_watcher 10y ago
I like this. It can be applied in a much broader range of professions than just programming, but it's a nice, memorable analogy.
- Noseshine 10y ago
  I'm missing an option for the guy who could not care less whether or not a tomato is a fruit or not, because he knows it does not matter at all for his purposes. IMHO the real expert knows what knowledge is relevant and what knowledge is for forum discussions that are just used to kill time.
  - st3v3r 10y ago
    How does it not? When making a fruit salad, the knowledge that tomatoes don't go in fruit salad seems pretty relevant.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - Noseshine 10y ago
      You don't have to know that tomatoes are fruit for that? Your reply makes no sense at all. I say "you don't need to know H" and your reply is "but you do need to know Y"! Not to mention that specifically your reply is something only worth knowing when when does know that tomatoes are fruit, and not when one doesn't.
    - Noseshine 10y ago
      If you don't have any arguments you downvote, you stupid troll? You don't have to know that tomatoes are fruit for that? Your reply makes no sense at all. I say "you don't need to know H" and your reply is "but you do need to know Y"! Not to mention that specifically your reply is something only worth knowing when when does know that tomatoes are fruit, and not when one doesn't.
  - adrianratnapala 10y ago
    If you know nothing but what you need to know, then how would you know what you need to know?
    - Noseshine 10y ago
      Who said "nothing" but you? http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-06-07 http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-06-07 I have taken - just for fun - over 70 courses completely out of my own field of expertise (CS) on edX and Coursera. EVERYBODY knows nothing, that is unavoidable. Knowledge is infinite, your brain is very, very finite. So knowing what is actually WORTH knowing - and that is different for every single person - is extremely valuable. Simply calling "you must know this!" "you must know whist too!" and combining all those calls from all people does not work. In the words of Sherlock Holmes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuIMmwJbnco https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuIMmwJbnco Trying to know everything is - as stupid as it gets. Trying to tell others they have to know everything even more so. How much do you know? I have take several neuroscience classes and know quite a bit about the brain. I'd say that is a lot more valuable than being able to put categories on plants. Yet I would never dream of claiming "you MUST know that!" and downvote anyone who disagrees with me as you did, Dick from the Internet. Please reflect before answering: What do you really need the knowledge that "Tomato is not a fruit" for? What does it help you with? And don't use arguments so meta it that can be used for any knowledge. Be precise. I'm really curious what all those people who don't know that are missing in their lives.
      - elliotec 10y ago
        You must be a riot at parties. Maybe the next class you take should be on how not to be the worst.
        Noseshine 10y ago
        If you don't have any arguments, this is what you have to come up with. You show that you are just a trolling loser with no substance. Care to react to my arguments? Of course not. Maybe you should spend more time getting an education instead of browsing Internet forums, you don't seem to have anything of value to contribute if have to go for personal attacks.
- hoorayimhelping 10y ago
  I always heard it as: "Knowledge is knowing tomatoes are fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put tomatoes in fruit salad."
- Noseshine 10y ago
  I am missing an option for the guy who could not care less whether or not a tomato is a fruit or not, because he knows it does not matter at all for his purposes. IMHO the real expert knows what knowledge is relevant and what knowledge is for forum discussions that are just used to kill time.
jcranendonk 10y ago
And a Real Programmer™ makes salsa.
syntheticnature 10y ago
To bring this full circle, "a marketing guy can sell a tomato-based fruit salad."
- hasenj 10y ago
  Even when the salad has no tomatoes in it!
  - edem 10y ago
    Nor fruits.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- timje1 10y ago
  "Salsa".
  - syntheticnature 10y ago
    Found the marketing guy. (Or, in the alternate versions I was thinking of, "Bard.")
miguelrochefort 10y ago
Why wouldn't you put tomatoes in a fruit salad?
- eCa 10y ago
  Lots of reasons[1]. [1] https://www.google.com/search?q=Why+wouldn't+you+put+tomatoes+in+a+fruit+salad https://www.google.com/search?q=Why+wouldn't+you+put+tomatoe...
  - harlanlewis 10y ago
    Counterpoint (taken from those google results): http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016885-tomato-fruit-salad http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016885-tomato-fruit-sala...
- memracom 10y ago
  Unanswerable. First of all people do put non-fruit in their fruit salads such as honey, nuts, coconut-milk-jelly, other dairy products like cottage cheese. Secondly, there is no law saying that I have to make any given named recipe the same way that you and your friends make it. What if I really like tomatoes? Or what if I don't like them at all but the doctor says I must eat so I want to put them into something that tastes yummy to cover the tomato flavor? Tomatoes are a fruit, specifically they are a berry. Some varieties of tomato are quite sweet, so sweet that some people hate those varieties. Sweet tomatoes work fine in a fruit salad and if you served it to your friends without warning most of them would likely eat it and not complain. Tomatoes are not the only fruit/vegetable that is sometime used as a fruit and sometimes as a vegetable.
  - wott 10y ago
    > First of all people do put non-fruit in their fruit salads such as honey, nuts, coconut-milk-jelly, other dairy products like cottage cheese. In which country does this happen?
    - astrange 10y ago
matthewowen 10y ago
Fun fact: the US Supreme Court says that for the purposes of trade and commerce, tomatoes are vegetables.
- eyelidlessness 10y ago
  "Fruit" is a biological classification, "vegetable" is a culinary one. Tomatoes are both. "Fruit" also has a colloquial meaning which generally contrasts with vegetable, hence the discrepancy.

A competent programmer knows that tomatoes are fruits. A proficient programmer doesn't put tomatoes in a fruit salad. :)

by yawz 10y ago

A competent programmer knows that tomatoes are fruits. A proficient programmer doesn't put tomatoes in a fruit salad. :)

the_watcher 10y ago

I like this. It can be applied in a much broader range of professions than just programming, but it's a nice, memorable analogy.

Noseshine 10y ago
I'm missing an option for the guy who could not care less whether or not a tomato is a fruit or not, because he knows it does not matter at all for his purposes. IMHO the real expert knows what knowledge is relevant and what knowledge is for forum discussions that are just used to kill time.
- st3v3r 10y ago
  How does it not? When making a fruit salad, the knowledge that tomatoes don't go in fruit salad seems pretty relevant.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - Noseshine 10y ago
    You don't have to know that tomatoes are fruit for that? Your reply makes no sense at all. I say "you don't need to know H" and your reply is "but you do need to know Y"! Not to mention that specifically your reply is something only worth knowing when when does know that tomatoes are fruit, and not when one doesn't.
  - Noseshine 10y ago
    If you don't have any arguments you downvote, you stupid troll? You don't have to know that tomatoes are fruit for that? Your reply makes no sense at all. I say "you don't need to know H" and your reply is "but you do need to know Y"! Not to mention that specifically your reply is something only worth knowing when when does know that tomatoes are fruit, and not when one doesn't.
- adrianratnapala 10y ago
  If you know nothing but what you need to know, then how would you know what you need to know?
  - Noseshine 10y ago
    Who said "nothing" but you? http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-06-07 http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-06-07 I have taken - just for fun - over 70 courses completely out of my own field of expertise (CS) on edX and Coursera. EVERYBODY knows nothing, that is unavoidable. Knowledge is infinite, your brain is very, very finite. So knowing what is actually WORTH knowing - and that is different for every single person - is extremely valuable. Simply calling "you must know this!" "you must know whist too!" and combining all those calls from all people does not work. In the words of Sherlock Holmes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuIMmwJbnco https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuIMmwJbnco Trying to know everything is - as stupid as it gets. Trying to tell others they have to know everything even more so. How much do you know? I have take several neuroscience classes and know quite a bit about the brain. I'd say that is a lot more valuable than being able to put categories on plants. Yet I would never dream of claiming "you MUST know that!" and downvote anyone who disagrees with me as you did, Dick from the Internet. Please reflect before answering: What do you really need the knowledge that "Tomato is not a fruit" for? What does it help you with? And don't use arguments so meta it that can be used for any knowledge. Be precise. I'm really curious what all those people who don't know that are missing in their lives.
    - elliotec 10y ago
      You must be a riot at parties. Maybe the next class you take should be on how not to be the worst.
      - Noseshine 10y ago
        If you don't have any arguments, this is what you have to come up with. You show that you are just a trolling loser with no substance. Care to react to my arguments? Of course not. Maybe you should spend more time getting an education instead of browsing Internet forums, you don't seem to have anything of value to contribute if have to go for personal attacks.
hoorayimhelping 10y ago
I always heard it as: "Knowledge is knowing tomatoes are fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put tomatoes in fruit salad."
Noseshine 10y ago
I am missing an option for the guy who could not care less whether or not a tomato is a fruit or not, because he knows it does not matter at all for his purposes. IMHO the real expert knows what knowledge is relevant and what knowledge is for forum discussions that are just used to kill time.

jcranendonk 10y ago

And a Real Programmer™ makes salsa.

syntheticnature 10y ago

To bring this full circle, "a marketing guy can sell a tomato-based fruit salad."

hasenj 10y ago
Even when the salad has no tomatoes in it!
- edem 10y ago
  Nor fruits.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
timje1 10y ago
"Salsa".
- syntheticnature 10y ago
  Found the marketing guy. (Or, in the alternate versions I was thinking of, "Bard.")

miguelrochefort 10y ago

Why wouldn't you put tomatoes in a fruit salad?

eCa 10y ago
Lots of reasons[1]. [1] https://www.google.com/search?q=Why+wouldn't+you+put+tomatoes+in+a+fruit+salad https://www.google.com/search?q=Why+wouldn't+you+put+tomatoe...
- harlanlewis 10y ago
  Counterpoint (taken from those google results): http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016885-tomato-fruit-salad http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016885-tomato-fruit-sala...
memracom 10y ago
Unanswerable. First of all people do put non-fruit in their fruit salads such as honey, nuts, coconut-milk-jelly, other dairy products like cottage cheese. Secondly, there is no law saying that I have to make any given named recipe the same way that you and your friends make it. What if I really like tomatoes? Or what if I don't like them at all but the doctor says I must eat so I want to put them into something that tastes yummy to cover the tomato flavor? Tomatoes are a fruit, specifically they are a berry. Some varieties of tomato are quite sweet, so sweet that some people hate those varieties. Sweet tomatoes work fine in a fruit salad and if you served it to your friends without warning most of them would likely eat it and not complain. Tomatoes are not the only fruit/vegetable that is sometime used as a fruit and sometimes as a vegetable.
- wott 10y ago
  > First of all people do put non-fruit in their fruit salads such as honey, nuts, coconut-milk-jelly, other dairy products like cottage cheese. In which country does this happen?
  - astrange 10y ago

matthewowen 10y ago

Fun fact: the US Supreme Court says that for the purposes of trade and commerce, tomatoes are vegetables.

eyelidlessness 10y ago
"Fruit" is a biological classification, "vegetable" is a culinary one. Tomatoes are both. "Fruit" also has a colloquial meaning which generally contrasts with vegetable, hence the discrepancy.