4 ms·

> You seem to be under the impression that to be an authority one must have comprehensive and detailed knowledge, particularly in areas you care about. Detaile

by vilya 15y ago

> You seem to be under the impression that to be an authority one must have comprehensive and detailed knowledge, particularly in areas you care about. Detailed and comprehensive knowledge is exactly what I expect from an authority on a subject. If they don't have it, then on what basis are they considered an authority? It sounds to me - and I apologise if I've misunderstood - like you are arguing that a software architect doesn't need to understand the performance impact of their designs to be considered an authority on their subject? If so, then I respectfully disagree. It's possible to be a (bad) software architect without understanding that stuff, but I expect better from people who are supposed to be experts in the field. > The key to being a good leader is not to know everything better than everyone, but to understand how to help everyone contribute their best, then get out of the way. That's all very well but we're not talking about being a leader, we're talking about being an expert.

jasonwatkinspdx 15y ago
> what I expect from an authority on a subject It's about the subject area. Fowler is an expert on OO architecture, not low level optimization. I think you're holding him to the wrong standard, and I think it's rather absurd to insist that anyone has a duty to be what you think they should be professionally.
- vilya 15y ago
  The way I see it, they're linked. The memory hierarchy has a direct impact on a number of architectural concerns: data organisation, choice of components, communication patterns between components, etc. It can make the difference between a system that meets its functional requirements and one that doesn't. These are all things an architect is supposed to care about, so to me it seems reasonable to expect an expert architect to be aware of the factors influencing them. I get the feeling we're not going to agree about this though.

by vilya 15y ago

jasonwatkinspdx 15y ago

> what I expect from an authority on a subject It's about the subject area. Fowler is an expert on OO architecture, not low level optimization. I think you're holding him to the wrong standard, and I think it's rather absurd to insist that anyone has a duty to be what you think they should be professionally.

vilya 15y ago
The way I see it, they're linked. The memory hierarchy has a direct impact on a number of architectural concerns: data organisation, choice of components, communication patterns between components, etc. It can make the difference between a system that meets its functional requirements and one that doesn't. These are all things an architect is supposed to care about, so to me it seems reasonable to expect an expert architect to be aware of the factors influencing them. I get the feeling we're not going to agree about this though.