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Comment by lopatin | Hacker News Reader

How fast this got to the top, you would think John Carmack just invented nuclear fusion.

I have no doubt that he could, not only invent nuclear fusion, but get it running on a Pentium 90.

I was part of the Carmack cult but the illusion was broken when I saw him use the same authoratative tone on a subject I'm more knowledgable about.

Such as? Any links to this?

Good old Gell-Mann Amnesia! It doesn't mean he's incompetent in his core area of expertise, though.

I don't think gellman amnesia is really a material issue. Carmack is indubitably an expert in his field, but that doesn't mean he's an expert in every field (like aerospace or AI). I'm an expert in some things, but I've probably said some stupid shit in other fields where I dabble such as cooking, playing music, raising cats.

How many hours of discussions went into topics like code formatting and naming things like variables, endpoints, classes, etc?

Right? This isn't even a hot take - it's just standard software engineering advice we all learn in school or on the job.

Just like AGI he was supposedly brought on board for but…..checks notes. Nothing.

Dude isn't a god.

That said it's worth listening when he chimes in about C/C++ or optimisation as he has earned his respect when it comes to these fields.

Will he crack AGI? Probably not. He didn't crack rockets either. Doesn't make him any less awesome, just makes him human.

There are certain figures who are very experienced and knowledgeable in certain domains, so when they speak up about a topic it's usually worth listening to them. That doesn't mean they're always going to be correct, and they shouldn't be worshiped as superhuman entities, but it's almost always a bad idea to completely ignore them.

>Just like AGI he was supposedly brought on board for but…..checks notes. Nothing.

His AGI work was entirely his own? As in he literally stepped down from a high level corporate role where he was responsible for Oculus (3D games/applications) to do this in his own time. Similar to his work on Armadillo Aerospace.

Oculus wich also failed hard.

Sometimes it's nice to be reminded of some basic good ideas. Even if you already know. Also https://xkcd.com/1053/

People worship this guy, but other than being a good C++ graphics programmer, it isn't clear what he's actually done.

His engines are open source, and graphics are far from the only interesting thing about them. If you don't know what he's done that's on you; it's no secret.

So again, what has he done successfully besides C++ graphics?

More than you will ever do mate.

That's not part of my argument.

You don't have any argument at all.

Doom which was countless fun for people up to this day who make mods? (E.g. the great Myhouse.wad that was perhaps FPS of the year... 2023)

Quake, which was a good game, but arguably a better engine that lead to things like Half-Life 1?

Other games?

Shared the code to Doom and Quake?

I guess you dont understand how big of a game Doom was. The first episode holds suprisngly well up to this day, even after hundreds of doom-clones as they used to call FPS games.

But he didn't design the Doom game. He designed its graphics engine.

You understand how games work, do you? Please tell me you do. Else, what kind of argument is it?

The engine enables people with actual creativity to realize their vision. I believe Carmack was part of that creative process, but the condescending tone of your comment really isn't appropriate because in most games the engine is just a means to an end (nobody sane idolizes games because they're using unreal underneath, for example)..

Just decided to talk shit on Friday? What you believe doesn't matter. Facts matter, and your knowledge of facts are far away from truth.

What is your point?

Well some people do, I'm sure, but most people just pay ordinary levels of attention to him. And they do that because he's made interesting contributions to multiple products that people like using - which is enough, surely?

(Regarding this specific tweet, this seems to be him visiting his occasional theme of how to write C++ in a way that will help rather than hinder the creation of finishable software products. He's qualified to comment.)

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