4 ms·

Privately, I agree with you and I haven't upvoted it. After that, I suggest that our options are to (1) Flag it if it's really off topic, and/or (2) Criticize i

Privately, I agree with you and I haven't upvoted it. After that, I suggest that our options are to (1) Flag it if it's really off topic, and/or (2) Criticize it, which I think you've done well. My only concern is whether we should (3) be galled or outraged that others have their own idea of what ought to be #1 on HN. I like humour, and it seems like we share a personal preference for the kind that makes you laugh and then think hard when you realize that there's something incredibly insightful at the heart of the joke. Alas, I'm not skilled enough to pull that off myself. All I can say about Haskell is to quote Alan Perlis: A language that does not change the way you think about programming is not worth learning. And given that, the sad observation that most "Industry Types" as stereotyped in the OP are not interested in changing the way they think about anything. It's more than a Blub thing, it's a comfort zone thing.

bpyne 16y ago
I think comfort zone plays a part in IT developers seeming uninterested in "new" ideas. Closer to the heart of the problem IMO is that most business applications are just not very interesting. You can reduce them to: take input values from screen, run SQL query, and post query results back to the screen. Writing good SQL is the most challenging part. In order for apps to be more interesting - making new ideas in IT appealing - businesses must be willing to re-examine their processes and change them with an eye towards better automation and some business intelligence. However, getting a single department in a business to change its processes is as monumental as changing global warming. Of course, another issue altogether is COTS reducing the applications actually written in-house. Making intellectual investments in powerful programming languages is just not sound when a developer is simply writing "glue" code between vendor systems. People do generally get jazzed up in IT departments when new technologies come around. Sure, there are technological curmudgeons, but very few. Enthusiasm gets dampened when it is clear that a good business case cannot be made for the new technology. (I used "new" relative to an IT department's current environment and not in reference to age of the technology.)

bpyne 16y ago

I think comfort zone plays a part in IT developers seeming uninterested in "new" ideas. Closer to the heart of the problem IMO is that most business applications are just not very interesting. You can reduce them to: take input values from screen, run SQL query, and post query results back to the screen. Writing good SQL is the most challenging part. In order for apps to be more interesting - making new ideas in IT appealing - businesses must be willing to re-examine their processes and change them with an eye towards better automation and some business intelligence. However, getting a single department in a business to change its processes is as monumental as changing global warming. Of course, another issue altogether is COTS reducing the applications actually written in-house. Making intellectual investments in powerful programming languages is just not sound when a developer is simply writing "glue" code between vendor systems. People do generally get jazzed up in IT departments when new technologies come around. Sure, there are technological curmudgeons, but very few. Enthusiasm gets dampened when it is clear that a good business case cannot be made for the new technology. (I used "new" relative to an IT department's current environment and not in reference to age of the technology.)