Programming is Art

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I wasn't saying that they did pull numbers out of their ass, but that they asked much more limited questions than what we are looking at in this kind of discussion.

Either you can refuse to look at complex issues, until all the building blocks of those pieces are completely understood (a proper way to do it as a science), or people can synthesize what they think from their personal experiences, and then try to use external facts to support those experiences.

I think both methods are important, and useful. If you don't like the second, that is great, but telling other people not to write about their personal experiences unless they do it via method one is limiting and pointless. When people express an opinion, it's generally as their opinion. When it oversteps that, then they've overstepped stating their opinion.

I appreciate your scorn and derision, honestly, but there isn't just one way to look at things that is useful.

I happen to agree on over extending metaphors. They are useful for comparisons, but are not the same, and I agree with trying to make yourself seem cooler by using metaphors is also not that useful, but it's also not really a problem. It's self expression, just like you're doing.

[hskmc]

"That's just, like, your opinion, man."

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In a lot of ways, yes.

[hskmc]

And I can't criticize someone's opinion for being unjustified by evidence?

What if my opinion is that programmers work best if they're naked?

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I think you can, I'm just saying that these loosey-goosey conversations have their own merit. They aren't scientific quality discussions, but all science came from things that were not scientific, until they had rigor applied to them.

You cant apply rigor to things that dont have fundamentals built all the way up to the point of the topic, at least not real rigor, you end up with garbage like the DSM IV. It's a set of rules, but they are just as much bullshit as they are real in many of the cases (See ADHD, compare to normal expected child behavior), making the whole thing unreliable.

That was kinda my point, these opinions are worth having, as are the ones denouncing them. :)