> 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 produc

> 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?