3 ms·

I really don’t mean to be dismissive of this criticism— you and/or the parent commenter don’t seem to be alone in finding the tone offputting. But I read throu

by epgui 4y ago

I really don’t mean to be dismissive of this criticism— you and/or the parent commenter don’t seem to be alone in finding the tone offputting. But I read through the first 4 chapters, and I personally did not get a whiff of condescension. Is it possible that people are projecting their insecurities into a perceived slight? I also constantly hear this refrain from “FP outsiders”, but I’ve been obsessed with FP books and journal articles for the past couple years, and I really don’t see “the FP community” (if that’s really one thing) the same way you do. I’ve found that when I approach people with even the silliest of questions, they will bend over backward trying to give me a good answer, they will be happy that someone wants to talk about what they love, and personally I have found most people in these circles to be monstrously smart.

esperent 4y ago
> Is it possible that people are projecting their insecurities into a perceived slight? In my case, I don't think so. I don't have any strong opinion on the topic of FP. I do have strong opinions about writing style in tutorials though. However, rather than characterizing it as insecurities, I think you could say people are projecting their prior experience with FP proponents and being harsher in their criticisms because of that. It's something for the writer to be aware of. Every topic will come up against preconceptions. If you write about quaternions, for example, you'll need to address the preconception of "quaternions are hard to understand". All math writing has to address that on some level actually, unless it's directed to math experts. Likewise, writing on FP has to deal with the preconception that FP proponents are condescending to other programming styles. And by "deal with" , I don't mean "directly address", although that is an option. I mean that you need to keep it in mind while writing so that your audience gets the value you intend from your work.

by epgui 4y ago

esperent 4y ago

> Is it possible that people are projecting their insecurities into a perceived slight? In my case, I don't think so. I don't have any strong opinion on the topic of FP. I do have strong opinions about writing style in tutorials though. However, rather than characterizing it as insecurities, I think you could say people are projecting their prior experience with FP proponents and being harsher in their criticisms because of that. It's something for the writer to be aware of. Every topic will come up against preconceptions. If you write about quaternions, for example, you'll need to address the preconception of "quaternions are hard to understand". All math writing has to address that on some level actually, unless it's directed to math experts. Likewise, writing on FP has to deal with the preconception that FP proponents are condescending to other programming styles. And by "deal with" , I don't mean "directly address", although that is an option. I mean that you need to keep it in mind while writing so that your audience gets the value you intend from your work.