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I see this copy-pastad everywhere these days but it misses a huge point which is that written things don’t read or understand themselves.
by ofjcihen 7mo ago
I see this copy-pastad everywhere these days but it misses a huge point which is that written things don’t read or understand themselves.
- hliyan 7mo agoAgreed. Past, unfounded worries about proliferation of new mental labour saving inventions is a real thing, but it's wrong to indiscrimately use the analogy every time a concern about such inventions come up. It reminds me of a certain type of developer who blurts out "premature optimization is the root of all evil" every time someone raises a performance concern at design time (I usually ask such people to complete the second part of that Knuth quote or shut up).
- acoard 6mo agoIsn't that exactly what Plato's saying? The books cannot understand themselves, and we rely upon them, and in doing so that changes us.