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I explained how the culture will change. It will change because academics will use failure to release source code to throw doubt on the results of their rivals
by dkarl 16y ago
I explained how the culture will change. It will change because academics will use failure to release source code to throw doubt on the results of their rivals, and people (especially those who aren't already established in their fields) will answer that criticism by releasing code, which will raise the standards for everybody else. There's disincentive to be first, because everybody will pretend to be shocked at the buggy, undocumented code, but not everyone writes bad code and not everyone will feel able to refuse.
You want me to actually change the culture right now in a comment thread on Hacker News? I think predicting how it will happen is the best I can do, sorry.
- scott_s 16y agoYou explained the manner in which it would change, not why it would change. That's the hard problem. If that's not clear, you did not explain why academics would "use failure to release source code to throw doubt on the results of their rivals" when they do not do that now. I don't disagree with you that this would be preferable to the status-quo, nor am I disagreeing that it would be sustainable once the change occurred. I just don't see any reason why the change will occur in the first place.
- chc 16y agoI think you're talking past each other. As I read it, dkarl is saying that we should encourage academics to do this. That is the implicit reason why they would do it — because we're pushing them to.