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> It succinctly expresses except ... it doesn't. Unless you already know what it means, the term "cargo cult XXX" conveys absolutely nothing. And for what its
by PaulDavisThe1st 2y ago
> It succinctly expresses
except ... it doesn't. Unless you already know what it means, the term "cargo cult XXX" conveys absolutely nothing. And for what its worth, I'm 61 years old, I've been programming computers for more than 35 years, and until I read TFA I really did not know what "cargo cult programming" meant.
On the other hand, "boiler plate code" made perfect sense to me, but I suspect suffers from the exact same problem.
- imgabe 2y agoWell, all language has this fault that if you don't know what the words mean they don't convey anything. But you can learn what they mean and now you have a new phrase to easily communicate an idea to other people who also know what it means. If you work with people from a country where baseball is not popular you might find that the phrase "ballpark figure" doesn't mean anything to them. That doesn't mean we need a finger-wagging article about how nobody should ever say it.
- zdragnar 2y agoIdioms are, by definition, not self describing. Arguing that we should excuse them is absurd, especially when googling the phrase "cargo cult programming" immediately reveals the relevant information, all for a grand total of five seconds of effort.
- PaulDavisThe1st 2y agoI've had no interest in what it means until the GP made the claim that it "succinctly expresses" something. The fact that I or anyone else can look something up doesn't really impact the question of how succinct of an expression it is.
- zdragnar 2y agoThe succinct expression is the idiom. It is two words that substitute for a much longer explanation. It is both an expression and succinct, so long as you're willing to learn something new. Once you do, it can be used in the future for all similar circumstances.
- andsoitis 2y agoexpress != explain.
- wyager 2y ago> except ... it doesn't. Until some political weirdo recently went and defaced the wikipedia article on cargo cults, you could just google "cargo cult" and understand the analogy within 5 seconds.
- layer8 2y agoThe merit of “cargo cult” as a metaphor is that it’s memorable. Once you’ve heard the story behind it, it inherently expresses the aspect of doing something out of imitation rather than understanding, and that it relates to contexts where the thing doesn’t have the effect you think it has. “Boiler plate” is absolutely not the same, in that boiler plate is generally necessary and thus the correct thing to do, and there is no implication that one applies it without understanding.
- maximinus_thrax 2y ago> Unless you already know what it means, the term "cargo cult XXX" conveys absolutely nothing Unless you already know what it means, 'nothing' conveys absolutely nothing.
- mock-possum 2y agoIt’s a fun story though - if you don’t know what it means, you can ask, and you can hear the story, and learn the lesson.