5 ms·

I'm... not sure that's the kind of Friday-at-2AM embarrassing mistakes you want to put on your blog if you sell yourself as an elite consultant? Not using `-in

by shakow 2y ago

I'm... not sure that's the kind of Friday-at-2AM embarrassing mistakes you want to put on your blog if you sell yourself as an elite consultant? Not using `-iname`, using `-print0` and being surprised to see NULs appearing, the weird pipe + xargs instead of just `-exec`, using some hyper-convoluted way of replacing the NULs instead of just man find... that's probably not the best advertisement for “decades of consulting experience ”.

usr1106 2y ago
I thought exactly the same. Those who can do, do. Those who cannot do, teach. Those who cannot teach, consult. But instead of dwelling on prejudices I decided to try my own solution. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42163286 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42163286
- Upvoter33 2y ago
  Why insult teachers?
  - card_zero 2y ago
    Well, This quote is from George Bernard Shaw, but it's from a character from a play he wrote in 1903, "Man and Superman". The character is a descendent of Don Juan, a firebrand, but instead of being crazy about seducing women, he's crazy about revolution and anarchy. GBS explains exactly what he was thinking when he wrote this, in the preface, at extreme length: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3328/pg3328-images.html https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3328/pg3328-images.html The preface is actually a letter to the friend who inspired the play. Some quotes: > There is a political aspect of this sex question which is too big for my comedy ... > When we two were born, this country was still dominated by a selected class bred by political marriages. > I do not know whether you have any illusions left on the subject of education, progress, and so forth. I have none. Any pamphleteer can show the way to better things; but when there is no will there is no way. > I have only made my Don Juan a political pamphleteer, and given you his pamphlet in full by way of appendix. So the quote is from that appendix, Maxims for Revolutionists. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/26107/pg26107-images.html https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/26107/pg26107-images.ht... > He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches. There's at least one other well known quote there: > The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. Did GBS really mean this stuff? Kinda, but he's obviously being playful, because he got an overblown and ridiculous comedy revolutionary character to say it for him, in a work of fiction.
    - usr1106 2y ago
      I had no idea that it's that old. I had only heard it in the context of consultant bashing.
  - pizzafeelsright 2y ago
    Teachers at a minimum only need n+1 more knowledge than their students.
EdwardCoffin 2y ago
To be fair, he is a mathematical consultant who uses computer tools, not a specialist in computer tools.
xg15 2y ago
> the weird pipe + xargs instead of just `-exec I think that part makes sense though as it's simply the older idiom before -exec existed. (That's the reason why both find and xargs have specific flags related to /0-delimited filenames that are basically counterparts to each other) Also, shouldn't the two be roughly equal in efficiency? To my knowledge, xargs (without -i) does the same command aggregation that -exec ... + does. So the number of "grep" processes spawned by the two commands should be roughly the same, I think.
sirsinsalot 2y ago
Being an experienced consultant doesn't mean you know everything about everything. Hell, I put myself in that camp and I am perfectly capable of hacks, cludge, and mistakes. Be compassionate.
- cowsandmilk 2y ago
  Using print0 as an argument and then being surprised at what it does is not great. It speaks to the author never opening the man page for find and just having copied this command a long time ago.
- usr1106 2y ago
  But you should know what you don't know. You don't blog about a mystery in behavior of some code when you have fundamental gaps how that code works. I'd say asking on SO might be better in this case.
- shakow 2y ago
  The problem is not that he does not know everything, it is very normal to learn all the time (xkcd 1053, etc.). The issue is to be so deep into your own sentiment of self-importance to imagine that you discovering the basic functions of a decades-old program is worth sharing with the whole world on your professional website. I'm pretty sure a lot of people woud laugh at a JS “thought leader” who would write a whole post on how he just discovered this weird number i whose square is negative and how smart he was to have found the wikipedia page about it.
rustybolt 2y ago
I'm very glad you're not reviewing my PRs.
- blueflow 2y ago
  Why?

by shakow 2y ago

usr1106 2y ago

I thought exactly the same. Those who can do, do. Those who cannot do, teach. Those who cannot teach, consult. But instead of dwelling on prejudices I decided to try my own solution. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42163286 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42163286

Upvoter33 2y ago
Why insult teachers?
- card_zero 2y ago
  Well, This quote is from George Bernard Shaw, but it's from a character from a play he wrote in 1903, "Man and Superman". The character is a descendent of Don Juan, a firebrand, but instead of being crazy about seducing women, he's crazy about revolution and anarchy. GBS explains exactly what he was thinking when he wrote this, in the preface, at extreme length: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3328/pg3328-images.html https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3328/pg3328-images.html The preface is actually a letter to the friend who inspired the play. Some quotes: > There is a political aspect of this sex question which is too big for my comedy ... > When we two were born, this country was still dominated by a selected class bred by political marriages. > I do not know whether you have any illusions left on the subject of education, progress, and so forth. I have none. Any pamphleteer can show the way to better things; but when there is no will there is no way. > I have only made my Don Juan a political pamphleteer, and given you his pamphlet in full by way of appendix. So the quote is from that appendix, Maxims for Revolutionists. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/26107/pg26107-images.html https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/26107/pg26107-images.ht... > He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches. There's at least one other well known quote there: > The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. Did GBS really mean this stuff? Kinda, but he's obviously being playful, because he got an overblown and ridiculous comedy revolutionary character to say it for him, in a work of fiction.
  - usr1106 2y ago
    I had no idea that it's that old. I had only heard it in the context of consultant bashing.
- pizzafeelsright 2y ago
  Teachers at a minimum only need n+1 more knowledge than their students.

EdwardCoffin 2y ago

To be fair, he is a mathematical consultant who uses computer tools, not a specialist in computer tools.

xg15 2y ago

> the weird pipe + xargs instead of just `-exec I think that part makes sense though as it's simply the older idiom before -exec existed. (That's the reason why both find and xargs have specific flags related to /0-delimited filenames that are basically counterparts to each other) Also, shouldn't the two be roughly equal in efficiency? To my knowledge, xargs (without -i) does the same command aggregation that -exec ... + does. So the number of "grep" processes spawned by the two commands should be roughly the same, I think.

sirsinsalot 2y ago

Being an experienced consultant doesn't mean you know everything about everything. Hell, I put myself in that camp and I am perfectly capable of hacks, cludge, and mistakes. Be compassionate.

cowsandmilk 2y ago
Using print0 as an argument and then being surprised at what it does is not great. It speaks to the author never opening the man page for find and just having copied this command a long time ago.
usr1106 2y ago
But you should know what you don't know. You don't blog about a mystery in behavior of some code when you have fundamental gaps how that code works. I'd say asking on SO might be better in this case.
shakow 2y ago
The problem is not that he does not know everything, it is very normal to learn all the time (xkcd 1053, etc.). The issue is to be so deep into your own sentiment of self-importance to imagine that you discovering the basic functions of a decades-old program is worth sharing with the whole world on your professional website. I'm pretty sure a lot of people woud laugh at a JS “thought leader” who would write a whole post on how he just discovered this weird number i whose square is negative and how smart he was to have found the wikipedia page about it.

rustybolt 2y ago

I'm very glad you're not reviewing my PRs.

blueflow 2y ago
Why?