Hacker News Reader

Comment by beaumartinez | Hacker News Reader

Doesn't Rasmus Lerdorf "hate" programming, though?[1] I don't think he's on the same "level" as Matz regarding their languages and the passion behind them because of this.

"There are people who actually like programming. I don't understand why they like programming."

[1] http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rasmus_Lerdorf

View on HN

It's a bit of hyperbole on his part, but yeah, I think he likes seeing how something ought to be done, and doesn't enjoy sitting down and actually pecking at the keys to make it happen. I can understand that.

Speaking of dot coms and Linuxcare and such, much as I don't care for working with PHP, Rasmus is a really smart, friendly and nice guy who is well worth talking with even if his language is not 'hip'.

I take that and other similar things he has uttered in the past to mean that he puts pragmatism over perfectionism. He wraps it in a self-deprecating tone of humor, which may come out as ignorant but is in fact just him being humble. Or that's how I understand him anyway.

"I don't like writing, I like having written." - Ernest Hemingway

Is there a source for that Hemingway quote?

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2756870

I totally lack context, here, but when I saw that quote, my first thought was, "With the tastes you showed in creating PHP, it's no wonder you hate programming."

It is very easy to bash him but he must have done something right and he deserves the credit for it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com