Close to the Machine: Technophilia and its discontents
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Re: Close to the Machine: Technophilia and its discontents
#2I recently read Ellen Ullman's memoir about her life as a software developer in the dot-com bubble era: "Close to the machine: Technophilia and its discontents".
The book was written before I was born, but I can still closely relate to most of the cultural points made. She does a great job defining the anxieties and frictions you experience working in the duality of the very formal computer systems and the subjective, messy working contexts, filled with deadlines, bureaucracy, "rockstars"...
Her takes on the internet are also super relevant today. A favorite extract of mine: "When I watch the users try the Internet, it slowly becomes clear to me that the Net represents the ultimate dumbing-down of the computer. The users seem to believe that they are connected to some vast treasure trove — all the knowledge of our times, an endless digitized compendium, some electronic library of Alexandria — if only they could figure out how to use it. But they just sit and click, and look disconcertedly at the junk that comes back at them".
What other similar books would you recommend?
Re: Close to the Machine: Technophilia and its discontents
#3From 'Life in Code':
"We build our computers the way we build our cities—over time, without a plan, on top of ruins."
Re: Close to the Machine: Technophilia and its discontents
#4Back when syntax was a challenge for me and documentation more scarce generally, and, perhaps even more than I’d like to admit to this day, I find myself mentally thinking of programming as ‘begging a computer to do things.’
Re: Close to the Machine: Technophilia and its discontents
#5Back when syntax was a challenge for me and documentation more scarce generally, and, perhaps even more than I’d like to admit to this day, I find myself mentally thinking of programming as ‘begging a computer to do things.’
Thanks for that, I’m going to use it anytime someone asks me what prompt engineering is!
Re: Close to the Machine: Technophilia and its discontents
#6This looks like a review or comment on something, that Ellen wrote, but I've no idea what, it does not link to anything ?
Re: Close to the Machine: Technophilia and its discontents
#7Back when syntax was a challenge for me and documentation more scarce generally, and, perhaps even more than I’d like to admit to this day, I find myself mentally thinking of programming as ‘begging a computer to do things.’
Then it goes from begging a computer to do something to cursing the designers of the latest popular framework for doing The Thing in a Slightly Better But Radically Different Way. Oh great, we get to learn how to do this basic Thing for the eighth time, hopefully this time is sticks (it won't).
Re: Close to the Machine: Technophilia and its discontents
#8This looks like a review or comment on something, that Ellen wrote, but I've no idea what, it does not link to anything ?
The title of the book is the title of the article.
If you read the article, the author clearly states this is a review of the book.
Re: Close to the Machine: Technophilia and its discontents
#9I recently read Ellen Ullman's memoir about her life as a software developer in the dot-com bubble era: "Close to the machine: Technophilia and its discontents". The book was written before I was born, but I can still closely relate to most of the cultural points made. She does a great job defining the anxieties and frictions you experience working in the duality of the very formal computer systems and the subjective…
>The book was written before I was born
Oh my god I'm so fucking old.
Re: Close to the Machine: Technophilia and its discontents
#10I recently read Ellen Ullman's memoir about her life as a software developer in the dot-com bubble era: "Close to the machine: Technophilia and its discontents". The book was written before I was born, but I can still closely relate to most of the cultural points made. She does a great job defining the anxieties and frictions you experience working in the duality of the very formal computer systems and the subjective…
"The users seem to believe that they are connected to some vast treasure trove — all the knowledge of our times, an endless digitized compendium, some electronic library of Alexandria..."
Personally, I feel that this is one thing that worked out about as well as could reasonably be expected (it would be unreasonable to expect that the benefits of this could be reaped without effort...)