Posted by
Marcus G. Daniels on
Jan 24, 2014; 9:01pm
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Live-Q-A-with-Edward-Snowden-Thursday-23rd-January-8pm-GMT-3pm-EST-tp7584887p7584893.html
I wrote:
> Pay no attention to the content of the message in the URL below, but the
> preamble may be amusing to
> some.
>
>
http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2014-01/msg00208.html[a wait-for-the-compile rant!]
Well, if you were to read the content of the thread, it reminds me of an
occasional theme that also
occurs here. It's the notion that conversations about philosophy are
stupid and technical topics are
substantive. I'd also tie it into Steve's remarks about the distinction
between education and training.
I'm not sure I agree that there is a difference [1], but `the big picture'
-- an education -- might be
argued to be different and more foundational than `skills'. Similarly,
the lack of interest in philosophy
and singleminded interest in `technical talk' I'd map to the folks in the
LLVM camp (the URL), and the
GCC camp being the time-wasting philosophers and politicians (which is
completely untrue for GCC
hackers). I have a different take, as a person comfortable with his
skills: It's that the "only do it for
technical reasons" folks lack a big picture. So they talk about their
code projects, methods
development, and intermediate results and don't even try to put their work
in a larger context. Is a
discussion `open' to more people if it is nihilistic -- sure it is. But
people aren't really nihilists in
general (that takes vigilance), they just deny and obscure the values they
have or the ones thrust upon
them, and then complain when values are discussed as a first-class thing.
Maybe they just like their
pen.
Marcus
[1] It seems to me most worthwhile things come from curiosity, skepticism,
and hard work. That's an
individual-level property. At the end of the day, an education can't put
it in you, but it can show you
people that do have these properties.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web.com - Microsoft® Exchange solutions from a leading provider -
http://link.mail2web.com/Business/Exchange============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe
http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com