Software is about people, not code (2020)

Post by inigyou » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 1:38 AM UTC

bumby wrote: post #58

inigyou wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the development team's work in this scenario is more akin to basic research . There is still some chance they may discover something unexpected.

It’s not basic research in the vast, vast majority of business cases you’re describing. They aren’t Bell Labs doing novel work, they’re usually doing busy work on mundane apps. I’m not going to move our understanding of financial physics forward playing around with a social media or CRUD app. Hell, most work isn’t even testing a hypothesis other than “I hope this change doesn’t break shit” It comes across as “everyon…

Post by andrekandre » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 3:54 AM UTC

CodeMage wrote: post #32

livingsoft wrote: post #25

Close, but no. Software is about the mind , and its ability to shape (and be shaped by) its environment. Software was about "people" back when we had to pool our keystrokes together just to keep simple websites running - now we have the technical means to face the true nature of the problem, which is political: just like people have autonomy over their bodies, they deserve autonomy over their software, without having…

> just like people have autonomy over their bodies, they deserve autonomy over their software, without having to rely on a corrupt and incompetent industry The technical means you mention won't give you that. The same people that make the industry "corrupt and incompetent" are leveraging those technical means to make it even more corrupt and less competent. Meanwhile, the rest of us who work in that industry are rapi…

  > You can't rely solely on technology to solve problems rooted in human nature.

Post by inigyou » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 8:37 AM UTC

bumby wrote: post #62

inigyou wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sqlite came out of a CRUD app developer being unsatisfied with his database options

I took “basic research” to mean “fundamental research”. Sqlite is not fundamental research. It’s an exception that proves the rule. It was literally designed for a solving a specific problem. Somewhat ironically, it also comes from the industry that originated the term “self-licking ice cream cone”. An occasional useful offshoot doesn’t justify massive amounts of otherwise less useful busywork

Post by bumby » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 12:21 PM UTC

inigyou wrote: post #65

bumby wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I took “basic research” to mean “fundamental research”. Sqlite is not fundamental research. It’s an exception that proves the rule. It was literally designed for a solving a specific problem. Somewhat ironically, it also comes from the industry that originated the term “self-licking ice cream cone”. An occasional useful offshoot doesn’t justify massive amounts of otherwise less useful busywork

Basic research is research done without an obvious application. In the same way, development can be done without an obvious application. All those mathematicians studying prime numbers in the 1600s-1800s came in useful later when we invented good cryptography.

Post by scrubs » Sun, Aug 09, 2026, 2:08 AM UTC