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It’s only a trivial insight if you agree. Most people don’t. I have worked with many developers who believe that whatever they value is obviously the right valu

It’s only a trivial insight if you agree. Most people don’t. I have worked with many developers who believe that whatever they value is obviously the right values and everybody else just don’t get it. Every time a developer claims they have made a “rational” choice you know you are seeing one of them in their natural inhabitant.

the_snooze 4y ago
>I have worked with many developers who believe that whatever they value is obviously the right values and everybody else just don’t get it. My go-to example of developer hubris is all the language-mangling technology I have to work around everyday, because it's on by default: auto-complete, phrase suggestions, fuzzy searching, etc. I'm perfectly capable of expressing my intent. I don't need a computer to say "well, um, actually I know you really want something else."
tablespoon 4y ago
> It’s only a trivial insight if you agree. Most people don’t. Do you mean it's only a trivial insight if you already know it? > I have worked with many developers who believe that whatever they value is obviously the right values and everybody else just don’t get it. Every time a developer claims they have made a “rational” choice you know you are seeing one of them in their natural inhabitant. Some of the most pernicious ideological-adherents are the ones who don't realize their beliefs are an ideology, and instead confuse it for reality (or that their values are the only valid values). They have a really hard time understanding anything else, or analyzing their own beliefs. You see this a lot with people who read a couple libertarian pop-econ books and then run around like everything is a simple question of supply, demand, and prices and that an ideal free market is "values neutral." It's also common in other areas, through (e.g. most deeply-polarized people of whatever party, "the reality-based community", etc.).
- mbrodersen 4y ago
  Yep agree. Always be aware of simple solutions to complex problems. Economics as you say is a great example of this. There are more than 9 major schools of economics. All of them disagreeing with each other and with people promoting each one with the dogmatic frenzy of religious fanatics.

the_snooze 4y ago

>I have worked with many developers who believe that whatever they value is obviously the right values and everybody else just don’t get it. My go-to example of developer hubris is all the language-mangling technology I have to work around everyday, because it's on by default: auto-complete, phrase suggestions, fuzzy searching, etc. I'm perfectly capable of expressing my intent. I don't need a computer to say "well, um, actually I know you really want something else."

tablespoon 4y ago

> It’s only a trivial insight if you agree. Most people don’t. Do you mean it's only a trivial insight if you already know it? > I have worked with many developers who believe that whatever they value is obviously the right values and everybody else just don’t get it. Every time a developer claims they have made a “rational” choice you know you are seeing one of them in their natural inhabitant. Some of the most pernicious ideological-adherents are the ones who don't realize their beliefs are an ideology, and instead confuse it for reality (or that their values are the only valid values). They have a really hard time understanding anything else, or analyzing their own beliefs. You see this a lot with people who read a couple libertarian pop-econ books and then run around like everything is a simple question of supply, demand, and prices and that an ideal free market is "values neutral." It's also common in other areas, through (e.g. most deeply-polarized people of whatever party, "the reality-based community", etc.).

mbrodersen 4y ago
Yep agree. Always be aware of simple solutions to complex problems. Economics as you say is a great example of this. There are more than 9 major schools of economics. All of them disagreeing with each other and with people promoting each one with the dogmatic frenzy of religious fanatics.