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> Linus would probably be more productive in LISP ... > he outcompetes everyone by superior design, by pragmatism and by being a good team-leader. On their f

by j_baker 16y ago

> Linus would probably be more productive in LISP ... > he outcompetes everyone by superior design, by pragmatism and by being a good team-leader. On their face, these statements seem contradictory, don't they? How is it pragmatic to turn down a tool that yields better productivity?

randallsquared 16y ago
How is it pragmatic to turn down a tool that yields better productivity? Because individual productivity is not the most important thing when you have dozens or hundreds of people contributing to a project... or want to have dozens or hundreds of people contributing to your project. It may not be important at all, frankly. Clever, compact code and extendable, maintainable code are often at odds, and lisps allow you to write very clever, very compact code in comparison to, say, Java and PHP. Or, probably, C, but I haven't written much C, so I won't opine on it. :)
- j_baker 16y ago
  Ahem... the comment I was responding to said that he outcompetes everyone by being pragmatic. Not using a tool that would yield better productivity for himself doesn't count as outcompeting people. It counts as working as part of a team. Part of my point is that the idea of out-competing people is a joke to begin with. You succeed with your entire team. You fail with your entire team. Secondly, I dispute the notion that clever, compact code and extendable, maintainable code are at odds. Code becomes extensible by simple virtue of there being less of it. I do agree that clever, compact code is at odds with one thing: someone else looking smart. Do people write clever, compact code to look smart, or do you dismiss it to look smart? Because my experience is that it's almost always the latter. If I really did write the code in an unmaintainable way, they usually have more precise criticism than "It's too clever and compact."

by j_baker 16y ago

randallsquared 16y ago

How is it pragmatic to turn down a tool that yields better productivity? Because individual productivity is not the most important thing when you have dozens or hundreds of people contributing to a project... or want to have dozens or hundreds of people contributing to your project. It may not be important at all, frankly. Clever, compact code and extendable, maintainable code are often at odds, and lisps allow you to write very clever, very compact code in comparison to, say, Java and PHP. Or, probably, C, but I haven't written much C, so I won't opine on it. :)

j_baker 16y ago
Ahem... the comment I was responding to said that he outcompetes everyone by being pragmatic. Not using a tool that would yield better productivity for himself doesn't count as outcompeting people. It counts as working as part of a team. Part of my point is that the idea of out-competing people is a joke to begin with. You succeed with your entire team. You fail with your entire team. Secondly, I dispute the notion that clever, compact code and extendable, maintainable code are at odds. Code becomes extensible by simple virtue of there being less of it. I do agree that clever, compact code is at odds with one thing: someone else looking smart. Do people write clever, compact code to look smart, or do you dismiss it to look smart? Because my experience is that it's almost always the latter. If I really did write the code in an unmaintainable way, they usually have more precise criticism than "It's too clever and compact."