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Thanks for the quote. As @tptacek has said, I don’t think his argument is very strong: it seems that he focuses mostly on the reasons for making it, bordering o

Thanks for the quote. As @tptacek has said, I don’t think his argument is very strong: it seems that he focuses mostly on the reasons for making it, bordering on an ad hominem. I agree with him in principle; it’s better to use what others have made, than to reinvent (a slight variation of) the wheel. I personally believe that pg’s reasoning was mostly because it was just fun to make, and as someone as active in the startup ecosystem as him, making something new rather than using the status quo makes a lot of sense. Regardless, I would have found it much more interesting if he gave some concrete examples, and/or focused on facts. I also don’t know Erik Naggum that well, and I’m wondering if this quote is an accurate representation of his style.

jonjacky 5y ago
I picked this quote because it is actually a better than average represention and shows Naggum's thinking and writing at its best without the bitterness and meanness that often crept in. I saw this post of his as not so much a criticism of Graham and Arc in particular, as a lament over the tendency in computing to dismiss the good work done in the past and just start over all the time.
- ncmncm 5y ago
  Yet, plenty of bitterness.
agumonkey 5y ago
I believe societies weren't that different, they probably tried to reinvent rules and laws too. Cycling around, massaging ideas until they provided enough social stability to stay. It's easy to assume ego is behind making a new language, but many languages were imperfect creations based on a set of strange constraints. It's also a honest path too, you don't like something, you make your own. Some people would rant about the existing state of things which is not helping. A working website was made with it so it's not a toy. Most things exist because the status quo felt not good enough that someone tried another path. And in the context of lisp it's a very strange attack.. lisp explicitly embedded the foundation for people to build their own dialects so they wouldn't have to suffer prior decisions too much.

jonjacky 5y ago

I picked this quote because it is actually a better than average represention and shows Naggum's thinking and writing at its best without the bitterness and meanness that often crept in. I saw this post of his as not so much a criticism of Graham and Arc in particular, as a lament over the tendency in computing to dismiss the good work done in the past and just start over all the time.

ncmncm 5y ago
Yet, plenty of bitterness.

agumonkey 5y ago

I believe societies weren't that different, they probably tried to reinvent rules and laws too. Cycling around, massaging ideas until they provided enough social stability to stay. It's easy to assume ego is behind making a new language, but many languages were imperfect creations based on a set of strange constraints. It's also a honest path too, you don't like something, you make your own. Some people would rant about the existing state of things which is not helping. A working website was made with it so it's not a toy. Most things exist because the status quo felt not good enough that someone tried another path. And in the context of lisp it's a very strange attack.. lisp explicitly embedded the foundation for people to build their own dialects so they wouldn't have to suffer prior decisions too much.