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Your experience supports the statement. If the professors you knew had a particular interest in software, they would turn their work focus towards that, not foc

Your experience supports the statement. If the professors you knew had a particular interest in software, they would turn their work focus towards that, not focusing on teaching, research, and other academic duties that are at odds with software. They prioritize the latter as those are in line with their particular interest. Software is just a sideline, just like I'm sure most of us here have some kind of other interest that we partake in at home.

davidgay 3y ago
They were programming language professors. They most definitely had an interest in both programming and academia.
- randomdata 3y ago
  Nobody is questioning their dual interest, but it is clear what their particular interest is (hint: not software).
  - sfink 3y ago
    I see. So anyone flipping burgers at McDonald's must have a passionate interest in and life goal to be flipping burgers. Otherwise, why would they spend so much time on it? If I understand your argument correctly, you're saying that if someone in practice spends their time doing X and not Y, then they cannot actually be more interested in Y. I believe this flies in the face of human experience. If you love software, there are a limited number of careers that involve writing software. If you do not have the privilege of a large trust fund, you're looking at industry or academia. Neither tends to involve just sitting in a room and coding all day. (Those situations that do probably won't satisfy a post-teenaged love of software.) Especially if you have a more academic love of software, academia is not a stupid option, even though you realize that your time is going to be filled with a lot of non-programming duties. Yes, you would probably spend more of your time programming if you got a corporate programming job, but loving software does not mean automatically loving any situation where you are typing code into an editor.

davidgay 3y ago

They were programming language professors. They most definitely had an interest in both programming and academia.

randomdata 3y ago
Nobody is questioning their dual interest, but it is clear what their particular interest is (hint: not software).
- sfink 3y ago
  I see. So anyone flipping burgers at McDonald's must have a passionate interest in and life goal to be flipping burgers. Otherwise, why would they spend so much time on it? If I understand your argument correctly, you're saying that if someone in practice spends their time doing X and not Y, then they cannot actually be more interested in Y. I believe this flies in the face of human experience. If you love software, there are a limited number of careers that involve writing software. If you do not have the privilege of a large trust fund, you're looking at industry or academia. Neither tends to involve just sitting in a room and coding all day. (Those situations that do probably won't satisfy a post-teenaged love of software.) Especially if you have a more academic love of software, academia is not a stupid option, even though you realize that your time is going to be filled with a lot of non-programming duties. Yes, you would probably spend more of your time programming if you got a corporate programming job, but loving software does not mean automatically loving any situation where you are typing code into an editor.