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It's because we [developers] are highly opinionated people and [most of us] love to be "right". Some people have a hard time understanding other people might no

It's because we [developers] are highly opinionated people and [most of us] love to be "right". Some people have a hard time understanding other people might not think the same - and in cases when they don't know how to express their feelings - you get name calling.

hello_moto 15y ago
General truth right there sir. Maybe there is a correlation between developers and math? Since I'm guessing many developers might have a CS background that involves a lot of Math, Statistics, Physics, and of course Programming. These subjects require people to answer things correctly hence subconsciously create a habit of being "right".
- zbyszek 15y ago
  You are probably right, and it's odd because if I've learnt anything from my time in science research, it's that science isn't like your school homework or undergraduate exams where there is a right answer. I find the notion that there is some absolute Truth which science expounds not to be useful. A useful thing is to be less wrong and to have a good handle for all the ways in which one might be through assumptions, approximations, systematic uncertainties and so on. The wider relevance of all this is the recognition that technical decisions involve some sort of trade-off and are not necessarily the end of the story. In science it's a healthy thing to have different approaches or formalisms because it gives some confidence in the results if they agree. I don't know if that has any wider relevance.
m_eiman 15y ago
The need to be "right" applies to most people. It's why we have fashion, MTV (or whatever the kids are watching these days!) and so on. It's also why it's important to reach that critical mass where you no longer need to convince people to use your stuff: once you're there the rest will convince themselves.
thibaut_barrere 15y ago
It's more fear (of loosing your job, of being outdated) than opinion. Obviously, learning new things is much more efficient to keep a job :)

hello_moto 15y ago

General truth right there sir. Maybe there is a correlation between developers and math? Since I'm guessing many developers might have a CS background that involves a lot of Math, Statistics, Physics, and of course Programming. These subjects require people to answer things correctly hence subconsciously create a habit of being "right".

zbyszek 15y ago
You are probably right, and it's odd because if I've learnt anything from my time in science research, it's that science isn't like your school homework or undergraduate exams where there is a right answer. I find the notion that there is some absolute Truth which science expounds not to be useful. A useful thing is to be less wrong and to have a good handle for all the ways in which one might be through assumptions, approximations, systematic uncertainties and so on. The wider relevance of all this is the recognition that technical decisions involve some sort of trade-off and are not necessarily the end of the story. In science it's a healthy thing to have different approaches or formalisms because it gives some confidence in the results if they agree. I don't know if that has any wider relevance.

m_eiman 15y ago

The need to be "right" applies to most people. It's why we have fashion, MTV (or whatever the kids are watching these days!) and so on. It's also why it's important to reach that critical mass where you no longer need to convince people to use your stuff: once you're there the rest will convince themselves.

thibaut_barrere 15y ago

It's more fear (of loosing your job, of being outdated) than opinion. Obviously, learning new things is much more efficient to keep a job :)