The software industry today is where the medical industry was 200 years ago. We still have a long way to go and a lot of movements to look forward to.
Enough with the movements
21–27 of 27 posts
Re: Enough with the movements
#22The usefulness of each movement isn't that they're right in themselves. It's that when the hype has faded, and they wash out again, the landscape they leave is different. If they're successful, half of what they advocated is seen as hyperbole, and half of it is taken as common sense.
Re: Enough with the movements
#23> When I flick through my textbooks from my physics degree course, they don't read as a series of cultural movements within the physics community. What is true is true. Wrong book. Try looking at a history of science. You definitely see the same sort of behavior. A good place to start is Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions . If anything, science is worse because the cycles are longer. As Max Planck wrote:…
agreed.
> When I flick through my textbooks from my physics degree course, they don't read as a series of cultural movements within the physics community. What is true is true.
This is actually something that is done deliberately, because the situations, conditions, debates, culture etc.etc. are seen as a distraction from the main objective- to learn physics. The actual history of science is more revolutionary than what many might think- sure there are no wars; but the paradigm shifts that follow the introduction of new ideas is what I would call revolutionary (Interestingly, I believe the term 'revolutionary idea' came about after the discovery of the heliocentric nature of the solar system; i.e the idea that earth goes in 'revolutions' around the sun rather than it being stationary)
Re: Enough with the movements
#24> When I flick through my textbooks from my physics degree course, they don't read as a series of cultural movements within the physics community. What is true is true. Wrong book. Try looking at a history of science. You definitely see the same sort of behavior. A good place to start is Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions . If anything, science is worse because the cycles are longer. As Max Planck wrote:…
"A short history of nearly everything" by Bill Bryson is an entertaining read with numerous funny stories behind some scientists/discoveries. Definitely a more lively take than a textbook that presents the end results and omits the process (not to fault said textbooks as that is what they intend to do).
Re: Enough with the movements
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sturgeon's Law again. The way it works, is that a small core of people understand an idea, an aesthetic, a new mental system, and they create real value with it. However, the reputation of the new thing grows into hype, which is then exploited for marketing purposes. The thing to do, is to focus on real value. That's hard sometimes and very natural other times. What empiricism works in software?
Or, since it's universally market forces which are responsible for this corruption, block them from being able to profit off the idea.
The problem there, is that the same dynamics occur with non-monetary compensation. (Or indirect monetary compensation.)
Re: Enough with the movements
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or, since it's universally market forces which are responsible for this corruption, block them from being able to profit off the idea.
The problem there, is that the same dynamics occur with non-monetary compensation. (Or indirect monetary compensation.)
>same dynamics occur with non-monetary compensation
In my experience, at least with Open Source Soft/hardware, this does not appear to be the case. Are you referring to a particular study or incident?
Re: Enough with the movements
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem there, is that the same dynamics occur with non-monetary compensation. (Or indirect monetary compensation.)
>same dynamics occur with non-monetary compensation In my experience, at least with Open Source Soft/hardware, this does not appear to be the case. Are you referring to a particular study or incident?
Non-monetary (direct) compensation: Some entity gets famous doing something which they're not paid for, but parlays the fame into economic gain.
FOSS example of notoriety (non-monetary compensation) later resulting in money: GCC has some benchmarks that are better than vendor compilers. Companies that use GCC start paying to improve it. The thing is, GCC is pretty good, and deserves its good reputation.
However, the notion of "Open Source" itself has been subject to hype.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10295530-16.html
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2006/05/25/beyond_the_...
I think the marketing and dumbing down phenomenon has happened with languages. However, there, proprietary software also fares worse. You may have a point.