The reason most people want to program for the web is that they're not smart enough to do anything else.
The reason most people want to blog is that they're not smart enough to program for the web.
The reason most people want to blog is that they're not smart enough to program for the web.
Jeff declares bold, out-there statements probably more than his fair share, but he's sparking beneficial conversations that get people talking (even if it's about how wrong he is). You might think his conclusions are brash and useless, but he's contributing to the programming community more than he's hindering it. Personal putdowns aren't helping anybody, no matter how witty they are.
Then you would know that my "witty comment" was not about Jeff, but about Michael Braude, whose blog Jeff references. Michael also said:
So forgive me for being smarmy and offensive, but I have no interest in being a "web guy".
It wasn't intended as a personal putdown, but a measured response.
The problem with Atwood is that his popularity on the web is an example of the stupidification of web programming. People who build web apps flock to him because he has become successful on the web, not because what he says is true, enlightening, or even beneficial to their success as a hacker.
The web is popular for wannabe's because they get exposure. They think they are hackers, but really they are just factory line workers assembling someone else's code.
In most forums I frequent, the majority of questions are from people asking how to get some FOSS project to work, not how to code some particular algorithm or do something hard. They don't do any research. One of the questions on stack overflow right now is if it's possible to find where sql server database files are stored. Seriously? If you can't do something like that, why are you trying to build a web app?? It's one of the most basic things in sql server.
I think at the moment, we're in a web programming bubble, fueled not by the love of money, or the love of programming, but the love of popularity. This love is shared by many because we all want to be loved.
Agreed, but some is productive, and while I disagree with much of what he says, he often sparks productive conversation.
In most forums I frequent, the majority of questions are from people asking how to get some FOSS project to work, not how to code some particular algorithm or do something hard. True, but that is where most people need help. People working on the hard problems probably both know how to generate the answers themselves and know that they will find little help on those on the forums.
I honestly don't have the experience to build file system indexing, low level crypto modules, etc. I could never build a database, period.
I consider web programming to be the way of the future, so I've never bothered to learn the things I would need to fill those gaps, but at the same time, I do understand that you often have to write filesystem things to be served over the web.
Simply put, if you can do it in Python, I'm your guy -- if it needs to be C or (gasp) Assembly, I am absolutely NOT your guy (tho I have dabbled, for the goofs.)
While it is an overly broad, sweeping statement that simply doesn't work for a lot of developers, it is at least true in plenty of cases. I might not be representative of the average, but I'm guessing most web devs do consider web development an easier way out. I certainly did.
Not sure how your mind conjured that up.