6 ms·

A post this ignorant and reductive is something I would expect from a freshman student of computer science, not a professor. Embarrassing.

newbieuser 4y ago
HN is a great site for people who want attention. It's funny that this article is on the front page but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
kragen 4y ago
People get to be professors because they spend their time investigating things they don't understand (that is, that they're ignorant about), not because they spend all their time doing things they already understand well. You just aren't used to seeing that process in action (it usually isn't blogged), so you project your own embarrassment onto Lemire, who doesn't deserve it.
- fluoridation 4y ago
  Well, I would expect a professor to not waste their time experimenting to learn something that's already been documented. So yes, there are things a professor should be embarrassed for not knowing.
  - shadowgovt 4y ago
    You hit upon an interesting meta-problem, which is: if something is already documented, how do you know? In general, the ability to search human knowledge (especially in deeply technical fields) has vastly outstripped the generation of such knowledge.
    - birdyrooster 4y ago
      Because you have experience enough to know what is and isn’t documented. If you don’t have enough experience, you probably shouldn’t be publishing your opinions.
      - shadowgovt 4y ago
        That approach sure would diminish the amount of material on the internet, I can tell you that. ;)
      - kragen 4y ago
        If you don't publish your wrong opinions, nobody will tell you they're wrong, and you'll stay ignorant. Ignorance is nothing to be ashamed of, but it's also not something you should protect like a precious jewel!
  - kragen 4y ago
    There are times when a month in the lab will save you an afternoon in the library, yes. But there are also times when a month in the library will save you an afternoon in the lab. I categorically deny that anyone should ever be embarrassed for not knowing anything. For attempting plans without bothering to find out, maybe. Or for claiming to know things they don't. But not for the ignorance itself.
    - fluoridation 4y ago
      It seems you're implying that no knowledge is required to be a professor, only a particular methodology. I guess we have different expectations of what a professor is.
- TillE 4y ago
  "Investigating" is an extremely generous term for this blog post which attempts no such thing. A serious person would have at least drilled down into the assembly, this is just an incredibly childish experiment with no follow-up.
- matrix_overload 4y ago
  "Investigating" means taking apart and systematically analyzing, exponentially cutting down the problem space. Making hypotheses, validating them, discarding the unconfirmed ones, and navigating further down the causal tree until you find the root cause. What this blog post is all about is called "bitching", pardon my French. And it kinda makes sense given the tremendous pay gap between the academia and industry in Computer Science. So if instead of joining a startup or a corporate research team, you decide to sit in a University job, you are either lazy, or don't like accountability, or both. Sorry.
  - kragen 4y ago
    There are a lot of perqs to academic jobs that aren't provided by industry, some of which can be bought with money (like sabbatical years) and some of which can't (like the freedom to speak your mind, or job security). Some people value them more than money, sometimes correctly. Also, there are a very small number of industry jobs whose metric of fitness is academic; most are looking for people who can get profitable things done, not find novel things out. I would describe this blog post as an initial note on an investigation in progress, rather than a report of a completed investigation. You can see that he did take apart the program and systematically analyze its performance; he just hasn't gotten far enough yet to see if the problem is the C++ compiler or, say, iostream. Since you've put yourself in the position of measuring your dick against Lemire's, what's your most influential research publication?
    - matrix_overload 4y ago
      >like the freedom to speak your mind, or job security Nope, it only works as long as you play along with the political games the University administration is playing. Speak out too much and you will find problems getting funding/equipment/people and will be stuck in a basement office working on a 10-year-old laptop. It gets worse, if you refuse to kiss ass to a particular boss in industry, you can always shop around and find another job. As long as you are competent and know how to sell yourself, you will be fine. In academia, one ruined relation can permanently screw up your entire career. I wouldn't call it freedom. I would dare say, a fairly recognizable blog in a relevant area, and a professional network of ~50 people will give you orders of magnitude more freedom than any kind of academic track record. >Since you've put yourself in the position of measuring your dick against Lemire's, what's your most influential research publication? Well, I didn't start it, but since you want to engage in penisometry, I managed to create a product and build a business around it, that pays more than a salaried job would. And I would dare say, comparing academic citations to paying customers is like being paid in monopoly money vs. the real thing. But I realize that the risk/reward ratio of this approach is not for everyone, so I normally prefer to keep my dick in my pants.
vkazanov 4y ago
Huh? It measures 2 idiomatic ways to print a string. Printf is faster, it's expected. This is just a note checking common sense. Totally worth doing it, especially for a scientist! PS The author is... not just any professor.
- pjmlp 4y ago
  Last time I checked my C++ compiler also had support for printf.
  - vkazanov 4y ago
    Yes, sure, C++ includes C stdlib. Don't remember arguing with this thesis.
    - pjmlp 4y ago
      Which makes his first example valid C++ code down to the same set of machine code as a C compiler would generate, thus a pointless article from a person that should know better.
      - vkazanov 4y ago
        Deeper in the article there's also a comparison of cpu cycles burned on various approaches. Would that count as useful?
        pjmlp 4y ago
        Not when he lacks the understanding his C code is plain valid C++ code as well. He could have avoided writing all that nonsense by using a C++ compiler on his "C" code with 100% the same machine code being generated.
kjeetgill 4y ago
I agree completely. Lemire's blog is usually a gold mine when it comes to detailed low level algorithms and encoding problems but this is the second time I've seen a post just come off so amateurish. And I've been a huge fan of his. He just comes off as really removed from whole program and language wide thinking — and maybe he's just a bit too distanced from it given his specialty.

newbieuser 4y ago

HN is a great site for people who want attention. It's funny that this article is on the front page but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

kragen 4y ago

People get to be professors because they spend their time investigating things they don't understand (that is, that they're ignorant about), not because they spend all their time doing things they already understand well. You just aren't used to seeing that process in action (it usually isn't blogged), so you project your own embarrassment onto Lemire, who doesn't deserve it.

fluoridation 4y ago
Well, I would expect a professor to not waste their time experimenting to learn something that's already been documented. So yes, there are things a professor should be embarrassed for not knowing.
- shadowgovt 4y ago
  You hit upon an interesting meta-problem, which is: if something is already documented, how do you know? In general, the ability to search human knowledge (especially in deeply technical fields) has vastly outstripped the generation of such knowledge.
  - birdyrooster 4y ago
    Because you have experience enough to know what is and isn’t documented. If you don’t have enough experience, you probably shouldn’t be publishing your opinions.
    - shadowgovt 4y ago
      That approach sure would diminish the amount of material on the internet, I can tell you that. ;)
    - kragen 4y ago
      If you don't publish your wrong opinions, nobody will tell you they're wrong, and you'll stay ignorant. Ignorance is nothing to be ashamed of, but it's also not something you should protect like a precious jewel!
- kragen 4y ago
  There are times when a month in the lab will save you an afternoon in the library, yes. But there are also times when a month in the library will save you an afternoon in the lab. I categorically deny that anyone should ever be embarrassed for not knowing anything. For attempting plans without bothering to find out, maybe. Or for claiming to know things they don't. But not for the ignorance itself.
  - fluoridation 4y ago
    It seems you're implying that no knowledge is required to be a professor, only a particular methodology. I guess we have different expectations of what a professor is.
TillE 4y ago
"Investigating" is an extremely generous term for this blog post which attempts no such thing. A serious person would have at least drilled down into the assembly, this is just an incredibly childish experiment with no follow-up.
matrix_overload 4y ago
"Investigating" means taking apart and systematically analyzing, exponentially cutting down the problem space. Making hypotheses, validating them, discarding the unconfirmed ones, and navigating further down the causal tree until you find the root cause. What this blog post is all about is called "bitching", pardon my French. And it kinda makes sense given the tremendous pay gap between the academia and industry in Computer Science. So if instead of joining a startup or a corporate research team, you decide to sit in a University job, you are either lazy, or don't like accountability, or both. Sorry.
- kragen 4y ago
  There are a lot of perqs to academic jobs that aren't provided by industry, some of which can be bought with money (like sabbatical years) and some of which can't (like the freedom to speak your mind, or job security). Some people value them more than money, sometimes correctly. Also, there are a very small number of industry jobs whose metric of fitness is academic; most are looking for people who can get profitable things done, not find novel things out. I would describe this blog post as an initial note on an investigation in progress, rather than a report of a completed investigation. You can see that he did take apart the program and systematically analyze its performance; he just hasn't gotten far enough yet to see if the problem is the C++ compiler or, say, iostream. Since you've put yourself in the position of measuring your dick against Lemire's, what's your most influential research publication?
  - matrix_overload 4y ago
    >like the freedom to speak your mind, or job security Nope, it only works as long as you play along with the political games the University administration is playing. Speak out too much and you will find problems getting funding/equipment/people and will be stuck in a basement office working on a 10-year-old laptop. It gets worse, if you refuse to kiss ass to a particular boss in industry, you can always shop around and find another job. As long as you are competent and know how to sell yourself, you will be fine. In academia, one ruined relation can permanently screw up your entire career. I wouldn't call it freedom. I would dare say, a fairly recognizable blog in a relevant area, and a professional network of ~50 people will give you orders of magnitude more freedom than any kind of academic track record. >Since you've put yourself in the position of measuring your dick against Lemire's, what's your most influential research publication? Well, I didn't start it, but since you want to engage in penisometry, I managed to create a product and build a business around it, that pays more than a salaried job would. And I would dare say, comparing academic citations to paying customers is like being paid in monopoly money vs. the real thing. But I realize that the risk/reward ratio of this approach is not for everyone, so I normally prefer to keep my dick in my pants.

vkazanov 4y ago

Huh? It measures 2 idiomatic ways to print a string. Printf is faster, it's expected. This is just a note checking common sense. Totally worth doing it, especially for a scientist! PS The author is... not just any professor.

pjmlp 4y ago
Last time I checked my C++ compiler also had support for printf.
- vkazanov 4y ago
  Yes, sure, C++ includes C stdlib. Don't remember arguing with this thesis.
  - pjmlp 4y ago
    Which makes his first example valid C++ code down to the same set of machine code as a C compiler would generate, thus a pointless article from a person that should know better.
    - vkazanov 4y ago
      Deeper in the article there's also a comparison of cpu cycles burned on various approaches. Would that count as useful?
      - pjmlp 4y ago
        Not when he lacks the understanding his C code is plain valid C++ code as well. He could have avoided writing all that nonsense by using a C++ compiler on his "C" code with 100% the same machine code being generated.

kjeetgill 4y ago

I agree completely. Lemire's blog is usually a gold mine when it comes to detailed low level algorithms and encoding problems but this is the second time I've seen a post just come off so amateurish. And I've been a huge fan of his. He just comes off as really removed from whole program and language wide thinking — and maybe he's just a bit too distanced from it given his specialty.