gsharm

Define acceptable. "friendly business" - as opposed to "unfriendly business"? Explain the difference between personal and "corporate" thoughts.

"typical East Coast bullshit." is how Steve Jobs described this sort of drivel.

We've entered an age of clearer, more direct and transparent communications. There's no time nor need for formalities.

Exactly. That's the real problem.

It was Benjamin Franklin that seemed to have first documented this effect. He had a nice routine going too:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickbilton/3779169741/

To think he did this in the 1700s. So far ahead of his time.

Where do you finally persist the data in that case?

Your writing was a much bigger deal than ViaWeb.

Actually, none of us are. And that's what makes this so hard.

Figure out what you're trying to do, convince yourself of why you're doing it and then figure out a way to do it. Consider everything else a distraction.

16:9 displays fit human field of vision better. This isn't a hardware problem, it's a software problem.

And there's no such thing as a ThinkPad X51.

Thank you, my experience has been same, and I could have not said this better.

I'd like to add that anyone in this position should do exactly what you and I did, and quit. Time is valuable. Leave them to find out the error of their ways by themselves if they're unwilling to listen. They'll think you're wrong. You'll think they're wrong. Fine. Let the free market work it out.

I now work as a contracter elsewhere, solving more worthy and interesting problems, and with wonderful coworkers. Our methodology adapts as required to the problems we are trying to solve. We're incredibly productive and love our jobs, because we think about the product we're trying to create and not about following arbitrary rules in lockstep.

The way to overcome incompetence isn't to fight it but leapfrog it entirely.

It must be horrible working with you.

Hi Paul,

Any chance of releasing a book or spec alongside Arc at some point? Or are you encouraging people to just play around with it for now? I'm just wondering whether the idea here is to encourage exploration through scarcity, or that there's insufficient resources to produce the documentation, or if it's just too early on at this stage.

I prefer Paul's wider take on things, it's what makes his writing so unique, it encompasses almost anything and everything.

I've thought many times about quitting programming altogether because it's in some ways such a narrow and suffocating field, which can relate to, yet fails to relate to, so many real world issues. Paul grasps, combines and presents these issues admirably.

My counterwish, therefore, is to say don't change your writing one bit!

Thank you for sharing. I'm similarly somewhat both disappointed and thrilled by the amount of bullshit that gets thrown around, and worse still, accepted through generations. I think it's largely a matter of habit, and the old can't change these habits easily - the young can, but then the old often do that work for them.

If you take a pyramidal view of intelligence, it means really the base is getting wider over time, which is worrying, so to some extent it's the job of people at near the top of the pyramid to push correct information downwards.

commented on jeff atwood's blog in regards to this - i think he misinterpreted the point of your article to some minor extent (and so did I since I read the quotes only at that stage). he seems to have homed in on a few particular points (which may have admitedly been too much of a generalization on your part - everything is open to interpretation), but I loved your discussion of the tree concept.

hoping this doesn't put you off (I'd imagine it bought a lot more attention to your site and let you tighten up anything that could have been mis-interpreted), keep up the great writing.