3 ms·
In Praise of Elitism
- Eliezer 18y agoI've only learned a little category theory, but what little I've learned is there because one of my friends was talking about category theory and I felt inferior for not knowing it. I'm starting to feel the same way about Haskell. This is a good thing. I'll take whatever motivation I can get, so long as it makes me learn.
- kragen 18y agoYeah, feeling embarrassed for not knowing something is often an effective motivation. The things I'm currently embarrassed about not knowing enough about include history, Haskell, and digital signal processing.
- triplefox 18y agoI think elitist pursuits are - just economically speaking - a tremendous waste of brainpower, because people are fickle and may move on to other things after investing the time to learn, without making use of their superior understanding. Where things are accessible to amateurs, the benefits are far greater as a multitude of approaches and perspectives are available to advance the "state of the art."