Bret Victor speaks so idealistically it's difficult to disagree with his vision, but in reality he's a radicalized, scrappy cult leader. His ideas sound super cool but they're impractical - that's why nobody can make them work. We're delusional for worshiping him. https://christophlocher.com/notes/ethnographic-research-on-d...
The thing though about "nobody can make them work" is that there's really not funding to do so, because corporations don't really see a payout on the other side. So is it "impractical" or just "of no interest to corporations"? Because with AI, we see what happens when corporations think there is a giant payday on the other side. Somehow "unlock our human potential through better ergonomic design of technology" doesn't open wallets but "replace your entire dev team with a robot" causes an endless tsunami of cash. One is "impractical" and the other is "our new reality". I'd say as far as feasibility goes, the former or more practical than the latter, but as far as fundability goes, the latter is more practical than the former.
If I'm going to take away anything from what Victor has said over the years, it's what the article starts off saying, that his...
vision is rooted in the idea that the computer revolution of the ’70s and early ’80s was cut short, primarily by premature commercialization. While the computer as a medium was still unfolding its potential, and way before it could do so entirely, it was solidified into commercial products, thereby stifling its free growth. Once corporations had built their businesses on the ideas developed so far, they were only interested in incremental change that could easily be integrated into the products, rather than revolutionary new ideas.
And so I think that's the reason for the culty vibes, because without htem he wouldn't be able to do what he does. If he sold it in more grounded terms -- fundamental HCI research -- he can't get funded. So he talks in terms of human revolutions and then he gets some true believers and effective altruism people to open their wallets, get some of those SV devs to spread some of their big tech money around to causes they care about, because they're the ones who have to ultimately deal with the bad programming UX we've built for ourselves.
And that's what Bret Victor is ultimately advocating: better UX for devs, mostly through observability. That's not so radical or impractical. His work has to be because otherwise he doesn't have a job... moreover, he'd have to get a job. But that doesn't mean he doesn't have a good point.