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It starts out from kind of weird premise > Now, you’re a social person, and you want to go forth and share all the great things you’ve learned. And you have le
by VMG 12y ago
It starts out from kind of weird premise
> Now, you’re a social person, and you want to go forth and share all the great things you’ve learned. And you have learned enough to distinguish some true statements from some false statements, and you want to go and slay all the false statements in the world.
I learned some Haskell recently and I'm somewhat enthusiastic about it. It's a very difficult language, I took a lot of effort to learn Haskell compared to most other languages. It's still difficult to understand other libraries and code. But personally, For me, it was worth the effort to learn and understand it.
I don't think it's worth the effort for everybody. I don't think it's fun for everybody. I don't think it's the best tool for everything. I have no desire to spread the good word.
If you start from the premise that it's the best language out there, everybody should learn it and that it is easy, you'll get into trouble.
Edit: I don't get the downvotes -- maybe I did not express myself clearly?
- munin 12y agoWhen you say "I don't think it's worth the effort for everybody", that's exclusionary, and totally counter the tone of the article, so I don't think your comment belongs in the thread about this article.
- VMG 12y agoSo the negation would be "Learning Haskell is worth the effort for everybody". I think it is arrogant to say that when there are thousands of skills to learn and a limited amount of time.
- munin 12y agoAnd it's not arrogant to say "it's too hard"?
- VMG 12y agoThat is not what "I don't think it's worth the effort for everybody" means. Some people have a greater return on investment improving their skills for a language they already know, learning a language that is not Haskell, or learning a skill that is unrelated to programming.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- tolmasky 12y agoThis is an incredibly strange series of comments. OP simply stated that in his assessment from his use of the language (and the time it took him to learn it), that it isn't for everyone, and thus HE won't be spreading it. Notice he doesn't speak about preventing other people from spreading it or anything of the like, he's simply making a personal decision of what he will evangelize. You have to be in a uniquely defensive mindset to cast this reasoning, a reasoning we ALL have to do eventually given limited time, as "arrogant". I personally think learning assembly is not worth most people's time. If I were to teach a web programming class I might choose to skip assembly. Can I be sure that people wouldn't get something out of it? Of course not. Is it "arrogant" of me to assume that people will find it hard and it is not the best use of their time, no, thats ridiculous. There are more topics than time, so its fine for me to choose what I believe is most helpful to other people to preach about.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- Dewie 12y agoThat isn't the premise. It is describing the type of audience that the article is addressing.
- Estragon 12y agoYes, and I've met a Haskell zealot who desperately needs this kind of advice, so it's addressing a real need.
- lobo_tuerto 12y agoI was going to downvote you but didn't, seems like you got a fair share of those already. My reason for downvoting you was that it seems you didn't understand that this essay is a "Letter to a Young Haskell Enthusiast", it's not for everybody, it's for a young haskell enthusiast, that's the point. Your comment seems to have no place if you think about the kind of people that essay is aimed for.