Warning to the unexpecting, this was written by Eric S. Raymond.
and ..?
Curse Of The Gifted (2000)
11–20 of 371 posts
Re: Curse Of The Gifted (2000)
#12(2000) Not that it isn't relevant, but it is 14 years old and the title should probably reflect that.
"I was writing code when this email thread was in diapers!"
Re: Curse Of The Gifted (2000)
#13Warning to the unexpecting, this was written by Eric S. Raymond.
I get that the guy is inflammatory, but what is the problem with letting the content stand on its own?
But if you are going to mention that ESR is involved, you may as well mention that Linus is present as well.
Re: Curse Of The Gifted (2000)
#14Soon after this exchange, Linus started using a real source management system (BitKeeper, followed by git) for the kernel.
...but it totally wasn't because of what Eric Raymond said, right?
Re: Curse Of The Gifted (2000)
#15(2000) Not that it isn't relevant, but it is 14 years old and the title should probably reflect that.
yeah seriously this might have been the suggestion that led to bitkeeper that led to git.
Which Linus invented and coded up essentially to solve some of the problems brought up here
Which (git) today arguably has done more for programming groups than all the new languages and frameworks of the past fourteen years combined.
So, it is interesting. But mostly interesting because of how massive Git spawned from it.
Re: Curse Of The Gifted (2000)
#16Re: Curse Of The Gifted (2000)
#17This should be required reading for any developer, if only to hopefully instill the belief that you will eventually reach a problem that you cannot lean on pure ability alone to solve.
Fortunately, one frequently transitions to management and/or dies before this happens because one's career is finite.
Linux and other such runaway success stories are true Black Swans and Linus's subsequent embrace of source code control IMO demonstrates you can teach new tricks to old dogs.
Re: Curse Of The Gifted (2000)
#18I am miles away from Eric or Linus, but the "curse of the gifted" is very real.
Thankfully I wasn't smart or gifted enough that I could ride it for long, but when it comes to math and problem-solving I rode it well into my high school years. I never learned to do algebra "by the book," because I didn't need to. Or maybe because I wasn't smart enough to.
The math teacher would teach "3x + 6 = 9." Basic algebraic problem-solving says you subtract the 6 from both sides, then divide by 3. So "3x = 3" then "x = 1." Easy. But I learned pretty early on that I could do it in my head. It was a little bit challenging, but then I wouldn't have to waste the time of writing it out, and I wasn't handicapped like all of those suckers who had to go through the motions no matter how simple the problem was. If the teacher wrote "x + 1 = 6" I didn't have to subtract 1 from each side, I just thought about it logically and knew the answer. Of course, the math got more complex, but I was good enough at doing it in my head that, at least for a long time, it never really mattered.
I thought it was because I just "got" math, and the other kids were on a lower level. But as the math grew in complexity, I fell behind. By the time we reached Calculus I was still doing most of it in my head, as I had never really learned to write it out on paper. And the complexity of the math outgrew my capacity to visualize. I showed up to my AP calculus test without a calculator, partially because I was forgetful and partly for fun, and it wasn't until I got my score back (a failing 2 of 5) that it finally hit me: I was actually behind. In school. I was cocky enough that this was a slap in the face.
I had to start from scratch, and I'm still not sure if I've made up for a lot of that. I ended up in more creative fields, mostly because I felt inferior to those who had learned the rules and not been cocky douchebags like I had been in the beginning.
This really sucks to write. I frequently wonder what could have been.
Re: Curse Of The Gifted (2000)
#19This is so inadvertently affectionate. It's like a grandparent trying to calm down their overconfident, arrogant child. So eloquent.
As a side note, I can't even imagine how Torvalds worked with others without source control. That sounds like absolute hell.