3 ms·

The philosopher: A conversation with Grady Booch

22 points by andrewl 4y ago

andrewl 4y ago
I thought this was particularly interesting: I had the opportunity to conduct an oral history with John Backus—one of the pioneers of functional programming—in 2006 on behalf of the Computer History Museum. I asked John why functional programming didn’t enter the mainstream, and his answer was perfect: “Functional programming makes it easy to do hard things” he said, “but functional programming makes it very difficult to do easy things.”
csbartus 4y ago
This is also strong: "Web3 is a flaming pile of feces orbiting a giant dripping hairball."
ofrzeta 4y ago
Not a great interview. For instance, after his answer about LLMs ".. we must be cognizant of their risks and limitations." the interviewer asks "What do you make of transhumanism?". Overall too many topics briefly touched upon like Babbage, Lady Ada, Quantum Computing without much substance. Why did IBM not develop a Large Language Model?
mistrial9 4y ago
I cannot get over an image from Dr Dobbs Journal sometime, where a well-drawn set of seven (?) gray beard, pocket protector guys were standing in a semi-circle solemnly considering a poster, meant to be a computer programming problem. The vibe was lots of wise old males deciding on the wisest course. Of course everyone was paid well but most "chose" humble attire. The reality is that every senior coder that could not put a signature on some legal paper was replaced and outsourced, faster than anything. It continues to this day. "Do not hire anyone over 40" they say, in Fast Company style. Since I was also once in my own early 20s I cant say I blame them entirely, but, you know.. In the 90s it was 50 year old car engineers in Germany.. "oh those guys, too bad no one will hire them oh well" .. but fast forward to the go-go second round of post 2008, and it was the csh coders, Solaris jockeys, Mac and Amiga graphics experts.. and even some of the digital printing people.. "no room at the Inn!" out with you, and hope you saved some of that money you got. Grady epitomizes the era and standing of those old gray beard guys, to me.

22 points by andrewl 4y ago

I thought this was particularly interesting: I had the opportunity to conduct an oral history with John Backus—one of the pioneers of functional programming—in 2006 on behalf of the Computer History Museum. I asked John why functional programming didn’t enter the mainstream, and his answer was perfect: “Functional programming makes it easy to do hard things” he said, “but functional programming makes it very difficult to do easy things.”

csbartus 4y ago

This is also strong: "Web3 is a flaming pile of feces orbiting a giant dripping hairball."

ofrzeta 4y ago

Not a great interview. For instance, after his answer about LLMs ".. we must be cognizant of their risks and limitations." the interviewer asks "What do you make of transhumanism?". Overall too many topics briefly touched upon like Babbage, Lady Ada, Quantum Computing without much substance. Why did IBM not develop a Large Language Model?

mistrial9 4y ago

I cannot get over an image from Dr Dobbs Journal sometime, where a well-drawn set of seven (?) gray beard, pocket protector guys were standing in a semi-circle solemnly considering a poster, meant to be a computer programming problem. The vibe was lots of wise old males deciding on the wisest course. Of course everyone was paid well but most "chose" humble attire. The reality is that every senior coder that could not put a signature on some legal paper was replaced and outsourced, faster than anything. It continues to this day. "Do not hire anyone over 40" they say, in Fast Company style. Since I was also once in my own early 20s I cant say I blame them entirely, but, you know.. In the 90s it was 50 year old car engineers in Germany.. "oh those guys, too bad no one will hire them oh well" .. but fast forward to the go-go second round of post 2008, and it was the csh coders, Solaris jockeys, Mac and Amiga graphics experts.. and even some of the digital printing people.. "no room at the Inn!" out with you, and hope you saved some of that money you got. Grady epitomizes the era and standing of those old gray beard guys, to me.