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Watching this reminds me how difficult it was trying to explain Fork the Cookbook to normal non-programmers. In fact, trying to explain to programmers who do no

• jmduke 13y ago
  The cookbook metaphor is actually really apt. The trick is not to introduce the terminology until it actually is important (which is much later than most people assume): "So you've got this giant book with a bunch of recipes for all kinds of dishes. You see one for shrimp scampi and you make a photocopy of it, because you love shrimp scampi (who doesn't!?). But halfway through making the dish, you realize the scampi would be way better with a bit more cumin. You contact the person who originally made the recipe and let him know. Chances are, he'll agree with you, and update his original recipe: suddenly everyone making that dish gets a lot happier, because they have a better recipe."
  • deleted 13y ago
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    • jmduke 13y ago
      Interesting -- I didn't realize until reading your bio that you were actually in charge of FtB, in which case the people for which you'd be using the metaphor hold the idea of recipes as personal property pretty close to the chest (just like how you wouldn't use the metaphor of amorphous screenwriting to describe GitHub to a novelist.) Maybe a body of law is a better analogy? More or less decentralized, changes (both semantic and otherwise) over time that are proposed by an independent body and go through a review process, etc.