Some of the things described are eerily similar to what I observe in IT. > As an end-result, academic papers usually end up popularity contests, a game of who’

Some of the things described are eerily similar to what I observe in IT. > As an end-result, academic papers usually end up popularity contests, a game of who’s-who where the goal is to develop incestuous citation networks so that your impact factor will look better for hiring and/or tenure committees. Not specific to IT: This description applies to management behavior in large corps as well. In fact, a lot of things humans do end up popularity contests. > I could hear [the protesters outside the lecture hall] chanting; the stark contrast between the esoteric subtleties of meta-ethics vs. the concrete realities of what would be considered “applied ethics” — a term usually uttered with slight contempt — made me deeply uncomfortable. Programmers arguing about indentation styles while their inventions drastically change how society works on all scales. > [Image] > An accurate representation of your average philosophy grad student. Also an accurate representation of your average Silicon Valley startup "C" "E" "O" if you add a Macbook and a Starbucks cup.