Hacker News Reader

Comment by urbit | Hacker News Reader

Am I not entitled to an opinion? You certainly are. You could tell me _why_ you disagree. And I would listen.

We may mean different things by "practitioners." I mean programmers. Unfortunately, your vocabulary is not common to programmers and shows no signs of becoming so.

Mine isn't either. But at least I've only been trying for a week. I know it seems strange to introduce new designs in the 21st century - most people assume, rightly of course, that everything worthwhile got figured out in the 20th.

View on HN

> Am I not entitled to an opinion? ...You could tell me _why_ you disagree.

Why I disagree with your disparaging remarks aimed at PL theorists is irrelevant.

The Urbit documentation should say what Urbit is, why it is important, and how to use it. Your disparaging remarks do not help to answer these questions. In fact, they do the opposite by antagonizing many readers and unfortunately giving you the appearance of a crank. Therefore, you should remove the remarks.

Knocking down PL theory does not boost Urbit up.

> We may mean different things by "practitioners." I mean programmers. Unfortunately, your vocabulary is not common to programmers and shows no signs of becoming so.

This is flamebait.

> I know it seems strange to introduce new designs in the 21st century - most people assume, rightly of course, that everything worthwhile got figured out in the 20th.

This is a strawman, and a particularly odd thing to say to someone who is also interested in advancing the state of the art.

We have an asymmetry of discourse here, because you want me to take your disparaging remarks seriously. You also seem not at all concerned about your own appearance.

Yes, there is a purpose to the disparaging remarks. The purpose is to make this asymmetry apparent.

Academia in the late 20th century is something of a footnote to the great achievements of the 19th and early 20th. In this golden age of science, peer disparagement was more or less universal. It is only in the second half of the 20th, the golden age of grants as it were, that genuinely criticizing your peers becomes a faux pas, and team-building becomes the essential skill for a practicing scientist.

But wait, I'm not your peer at all. I guess I forgot that...

> But wait, I'm not your peer at all. I guess I forgot that...

I'm afraid I don't have anything else to add to this discussion. Good luck with your endeavors.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com