the more gifted you are, the more you can get away with. but that doesn't mean you should be taking the easy path.
Eric S. Raymond - The Curse of the Gifted (2000)
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Re: Eric S. Raymond - The Curse of the Gifted (2000)
#12Yeah, that makes a lot of sense... I never ever studied anything before sophomore year of college. And then when faced with serious large-scale programming problems, and 300 level math, I realized I don't know how to study. It was definitely a struggle, but I'm glad it happened to me early, and not when I entered a "real world".
Depending on your career path, it is unlikely you would have ever encountered that math in the 'real world'.
Doesn't matter. He'll run across a problem that doesn't just fall down and surrender in the face of his blinding intellect, and at that point, his studying and thinking skills (not the math trivia) will kick in and allow him to slay the beast.
Re: Eric S. Raymond - The Curse of the Gifted (2000)
#13Here is the post in the context of the original thread http://lkml.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0008.2/0240.h... . There doesn't seem to be a reply from Linus.
No, and I don't know if he split that driver, but I like to think that Linus took the message to heart (regardless of how he felt about it). The two+ years that followed saw the arrival of a lot of "meta" structure fixes, like bitkeeper (and then git of course), etc. that address many of ESR's concerns.
Re: Eric S. Raymond - The Curse of the Gifted (2000)
#14I think it would be useful if you put the year [2000] in brackets after the title. For some reason I read the e-mail thinking it was contemporary!
Re: Eric S. Raymond - The Curse of the Gifted (2000)
#15I think it's worth saying that it's not just that gifted people don't need to learn study skills to get through school. They can be actively prevented from learning them by being forced to focus on a curriculum for which they don't need them. Denying gifted people the opportunity to take on real challenges while they are still at school when their mistakes are not too critical, which happens all too often, is worse than not recognizing their gifts, it is actively denying them the opportunity that others are given.
Re: Eric S. Raymond - The Curse of the Gifted (2000)
#16Edit the title to include the year (2000) ?
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The overall point is solid. Many times, the "gifted" have sufficient brain capacity to be able to track or process fairly complex problems. As such, they see no need for the sort of support structures and habits others use to solve the same problems. Therefore, they don't develop those things in the "natural" way, piece by piece. Instead, they finally run up against a problem too big for their brain, and have to develop those habits all of a sudden.
For some people, that's an obstacle they never overcome. For others, once they realize the problem, they're quick to get advice, research solutions, and develop those structures. I hope this letter served its purpose by giving Linus the motivation and information he needed to overcome the curse of the gifted.
Re: Eric S. Raymond - The Curse of the Gifted (2000)
#17Here is the post in the context of the original thread http://lkml.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0008.2/0240.h... . There doesn't seem to be a reply from Linus.
More commentary and background at http://www.softpanorama.org/People/Torvalds/kernel_in_pain.s...
Re: Eric S. Raymond - The Curse of the Gifted (2000)
#18"Your tendency to undervalue modularization and code-sharing is one symptom [of the curse]. Another is your refusal to use systematic version-control or release-engineering practices. To you, these things seem mostly like overhead and a way of needlessly complicating your life."
I'd say he came around on version control with git - five+ years later.
Re: Eric S. Raymond - The Curse of the Gifted (2000)
#19Here is the post in the context of the original thread http://lkml.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0008.2/0240.h... . There doesn't seem to be a reply from Linus.
Torvalds sort of addresses the issue, http://lkml.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0008.2/0241.h...
"On the whole, people tend to _want_ to share, because it ends up being the easier "quick hack" in many cases. So I'm not worried about that part overmuch. I'm worried about people who share even when it doesn't make sense. And I'm worried about people having bad interfaces, which makes even sensible sharing end up as a experiment in horror.
That's why I'm so un-interested in the "let's share" argument. I don't think that is where the problems are. "
Re: Eric S. Raymond - The Curse of the Gifted (2000)
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Depending on your career path, it is unlikely you would have ever encountered that math in the 'real world'.
Doesn't matter. He'll run across a problem that doesn't just fall down and surrender in the face of his blinding intellect, and at that point, his studying and thinking skills (not the math trivia) will kick in and allow him to slay the beast.
A trivial tangent: oddly enough I find that, whether I'm programming for distributed applications or animations, it is the number theory, and not (surprisingly) the linear algebra, that I am most grateful for having learned. Boutade's Law: do not underestimate the algorithmic utility of knowing your way around the integers.