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Why I don't write about programming and why it's not really worthwhile to do so

marco.org

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Re: Why I don't write about programming and why it's not really worthwhile to do so

#2

Post by greenlblue »

Nice article and the lessons apply to mathematicians as well. Few mathematician are willing to engage in civil meta-mathematical discourse and usually all such discussions end up in a shouting match about the intellectual inferiority of whoever is involved.

Re: Why I don't write about programming and why it's not really worthwhile to do so

#3

Post by Scriptor »

I'd say it's not worthwhile to write about programming if people already have high expectations for you. Spolsky is definitely well-known and some people probably view him as somewhat full of himself, so they like to pick out anything that might hurt his image.

For the average joe schmoe programmer, people don't have such expectations, so there is far less negative reaction. Also, personality does play a huge role. Someone who doesn't seem too aloof and distant from other people will be better off (take _why for example).

Re: Why I don't write about programming and why it's not really worthwhile to do so

#7

Post by mattmanser »

Scriptor wrote: post #3

I'd say it's not worthwhile to write about programming if people already have high expectations for you. Spolsky is definitely well-known and some people probably view him as somewhat full of himself, so they like to pick out anything that might hurt his image. For the average joe schmoe programmer, people don't have such expectations, so there is far less negative reaction. Also, personality does play a huge role. S…

lol, even this is an attack on Joel!

"full of himself", "aloof and distant", "For the average joe schmoe programmer (implying only they can appreciate his work)"

Re: Why I don't write about programming and why it's not really worthwhile to do so

#8

Post by neilc »

jackfoxy wrote: post #4

Although my evidence is only anecdotal, it seems like a lot of the programmers who are constantly argumentative and the biggest flamers are loners who in some cases have never even worked in a team environment.

I think another reason for this behavior is that programmers often define their identity in terms of their preferred tools (you're a "Perl programmer", not merely a "programmer"). That means that any perceived slight against a programmer's preferred tool must be aggressively defended -- hence the abundance of religious arguments about "$X is better than your favorite language."

Re: Why I don't write about programming and why it's not really worthwhile to do so

#9

Post by petercooper »

Scriptor wrote: post #3

I'd say it's not worthwhile to write about programming if people already have high expectations for you. Spolsky is definitely well-known and some people probably view him as somewhat full of himself, so they like to pick out anything that might hurt his image. For the average joe schmoe programmer, people don't have such expectations, so there is far less negative reaction. Also, personality does play a huge role. S…

Someone who doesn't seem to aloof and distant from other people will be better off (take _why for example).

_why isn't the best example - he was awesome, but part of his appeal was that he was distant and not on the same plane as the rest of us.. just not in a negative way. Nonetheless, before he disappeared he tweeted:

programming is rather thankless. u see your works become replaced by superior ones in a year. unable to run at all in a few more.

Even though he didn't attract much negativity due to his whimsical, impenetrable persona, it didn't seem to help him feel much better about his excellent work.

Re: Why I don't write about programming and why it's not really worthwhile to do so

#10

Post by NathanKP »

I have to agree with the writers estimation of the programming audience. I have noticed a very similar negative trend even among HN users, with comments on my programming themed blog tending to be generally positive with a few negative replies, while comments on HN on the same articles tend to be generally negative with a few positive replies.

We programmers probably tend to nitpick a bit more than your average audience, and that isn't always a bad thing. It can't be all that encouraging to the writers though.

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