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Is all that pathetic flow of long-words about the old idea of having a secretary?) btw, is it possible somehow to reduce the amount of nonsense^W links from me

Is all that pathetic flow of long-words about the old idea of having a secretary?) btw, is it possible somehow to reduce the amount of nonsense^W links from medium.com? We have enough narcissism here from patio11 and likes.)

ArekDymalski 13y ago
No, it isn't about secretary. It's about huge problem with the way many developers approach their work.
- twic 13y ago
  Indeed. It's not unique to startups, either; i've seen it in ordinary companies too. There's something deep and interesting to be unpicked here. On the one hand, the desire to dive into with new technology and make your own things is rather positive and joyful. On the other, doing that rather than pursuing goals with real value is sad. Many would object that the former enables the latter, but this is nonsense. We're not talking about prudently investigating potentially useful new technologies or inventing transformatively useful new tools. We're talking about using the latest hot NoSQL database without worrying about its appropriateness, or writing your own web framework just because. Choosing the former over the latter seems, more than anything, childish. It's choosing eternal inconsequential play over taking effective control of the world. I note that there are other elements of modern programmer culture which can be seen as childlike. The lust for table football tables in the office, the excitement about workplaces that have free food. Garann Means's 'Bacon is bad for you' talk advances a theory that's vaguely related; it really struck a chord with me. I find this angle of programmer culture to be deeply frustrating, because it means the discourse is dominated by the shiny and superficial, rather than the genuinely difficult and important. But then, Bucky Fuller wrote that "children are born true scientists", and the dramatist Keith Johnstone said "Most people lose their talent at puberty. I lost mine in my early twenties. I began to think of children not as immature adults, but of adults as atrophied children.". Maybe i'm overlooking the positive aspects of hacker neoteny.
- dschiptsov 13y ago
  As for being distracted by so-called "new technology" nothing could protect one from choosing over hyped crap like MongoDB but knowledge of underlying concepts. Recognizing and avoiding crap and a fraud is up to end-user. Otherwise one will end up running Java under Windows under VMware on Amazon AWS, as the best industry standard practice.) Or NodeJS as a "VM" with MongoDB as a "database".

ArekDymalski 13y ago

No, it isn't about secretary. It's about huge problem with the way many developers approach their work.

twic 13y ago
Indeed. It's not unique to startups, either; i've seen it in ordinary companies too. There's something deep and interesting to be unpicked here. On the one hand, the desire to dive into with new technology and make your own things is rather positive and joyful. On the other, doing that rather than pursuing goals with real value is sad. Many would object that the former enables the latter, but this is nonsense. We're not talking about prudently investigating potentially useful new technologies or inventing transformatively useful new tools. We're talking about using the latest hot NoSQL database without worrying about its appropriateness, or writing your own web framework just because. Choosing the former over the latter seems, more than anything, childish. It's choosing eternal inconsequential play over taking effective control of the world. I note that there are other elements of modern programmer culture which can be seen as childlike. The lust for table football tables in the office, the excitement about workplaces that have free food. Garann Means's 'Bacon is bad for you' talk advances a theory that's vaguely related; it really struck a chord with me. I find this angle of programmer culture to be deeply frustrating, because it means the discourse is dominated by the shiny and superficial, rather than the genuinely difficult and important. But then, Bucky Fuller wrote that "children are born true scientists", and the dramatist Keith Johnstone said "Most people lose their talent at puberty. I lost mine in my early twenties. I began to think of children not as immature adults, but of adults as atrophied children.". Maybe i'm overlooking the positive aspects of hacker neoteny.
dschiptsov 13y ago
As for being distracted by so-called "new technology" nothing could protect one from choosing over hyped crap like MongoDB but knowledge of underlying concepts. Recognizing and avoiding crap and a fraud is up to end-user. Otherwise one will end up running Java under Windows under VMware on Amazon AWS, as the best industry standard practice.) Or NodeJS as a "VM" with MongoDB as a "database".