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I know about Dijkstra. I didn't say Dijkstra was talking out of his ass in this case. I'm saying you often can't tell when people like him are talking out of t

I know about Dijkstra. I didn't say Dijkstra was talking out of his ass in this case. I'm saying you often can't tell when people like him are talking out of their ass, as they sometimes do. Who would think the inventor of all these algorithms would ever utter a half-formed thought, on a whim? Unthinkable! Yeah... no. Another distinction you fail to see is that somebody who is great at finding the best or optimal algorithms (i.e. a great theorist) isn't necessarily a productive programmer. To the contrary, perfectionism and productivity are at great odds. Dijkstra was heavily at odds with real-world programming as it was done, to the point of isolating himself with his work. If we followed his opinions on how to program, we wouldn't get much of anything done.

throwaway729 10y ago
> Another distinction you fail to see is that somebody who is great at finding the best or optimal algorithms (i.e. a great theorist) isn't necessarily a productive programmer. I suppose what you're saying here is that there are a lot of business tasks which don't require a great theorist. I don't think Dijkstra would disagree. But still, calling Dijkstra an "unproductive programmer"? Really? I'll take one Dijkstra's algorithm over a dozen web apps. And if I can have a patent on it, I can even make a solid business case for that choice. > If we followed his opinions on how to program, we wouldn't get much of anything done. And yet, how many man-years of engineering effort could we waste having bad theorists who can quickly hack out LoB code try to re-invent Dijkstra's algorithm? Perhaps software engineering is a very wide field, and it takes all types?
importantbrian 10y ago
> To the contrary, perfectionism and productivity are at great odds. I've learned this the hard way in my career. I always have to fight against taking the extra 20 hours to perfect something when it only took me 1 hour to get to 95% and 95% is more than good enough for the particular task.

throwaway729 10y ago

> Another distinction you fail to see is that somebody who is great at finding the best or optimal algorithms (i.e. a great theorist) isn't necessarily a productive programmer. I suppose what you're saying here is that there are a lot of business tasks which don't require a great theorist. I don't think Dijkstra would disagree. But still, calling Dijkstra an "unproductive programmer"? Really? I'll take one Dijkstra's algorithm over a dozen web apps. And if I can have a patent on it, I can even make a solid business case for that choice. > If we followed his opinions on how to program, we wouldn't get much of anything done. And yet, how many man-years of engineering effort could we waste having bad theorists who can quickly hack out LoB code try to re-invent Dijkstra's algorithm? Perhaps software engineering is a very wide field, and it takes all types?

importantbrian 10y ago

> To the contrary, perfectionism and productivity are at great odds. I've learned this the hard way in my career. I always have to fight against taking the extra 20 hours to perfect something when it only took me 1 hour to get to 95% and 95% is more than good enough for the particular task.