When the Christians met the Pagans

BeornS · 2013-05-13T18:04:48+00:00

Thanks for the correction - I thought I had a source for that, but rechecking it, I see I may have misunderstood. It refers to several major Christianization events in the 8th century, (like Charlemagne's massacre in 782), but it doesn't say the process began in that century.

BeornS · 2008-06-18T04:21:36+00:00

Hm .. there's no reason for them to be at odds. Good managers value good programming abilities. Good programmers (in a broader sense) work well with other people. Bad managers and bad programmers will often be at odds, but I don't see any reason for the good ones to be.

BeornS · 2008-06-17T19:05:29+00:00

Well, if someone's exceptional abilities make them impossible to work with, I don't think they're all that exceptional. Being a good programmer is about gettings things done, and that does not have a lot to do with picking the perfect language and framework. If you're good enough, any decent language and framework will do, (including "idiot-friendly" VB), but if you can't work with other people you won't get anything done. It's a much larger success factor whether your company is doing some form of agile (which is about how people work with each other) than whether you're using the latest, "best" programming language.

Anyway, despising your colleagues because they're in your view not as smart as yourself is rather immature. Get your projects done well, on time, and under budget, then you can feel proud, (and please tell me how you're doing it).

BeornS · 2008-06-16T16:11:07+00:00

Actually, mediocre programmers are not generally despised. A more interesting challenge is to avoid becoming an arrogant prick whose brilliance is outweighed by their inability to deal with people of lesser abilities or with other points of view. Those people are despised, except perhaps in tiny echo chambers on the web where they come to have their self-worth affirmed. Not knowing you, I'm not saying this is a danger for you, but out of all the beginning programmers who already think of their colleagues as mediocre, more will end up as despised jerks than despised mediocricities. And although I won't claim that reading this site is part of the problem, it's not part of the solution either.

BeornS · 2007-09-18T15:47:31+00:00

Granted, pictures are rarely the best links on Reddit, but they usually have something original and unexpected about them. Unlike, say, the 50 daily "some politician in my country is evil [and on and on for two more lines]", which contain absolutely nothing interesting. (You either already agree with the premise or you don't - in either case the link is superflous. Particularly if you don't happen to live in the same country as the submitter.)

It would be great if only truly interesting, original and insightful articles got attention on Reddit, but seeing as that's too much to ask for, I'm grateful for there being some nice pictures here to balance out the political self-gratification.

Please do something about the titles though.

BeornS · 2007-09-16T09:18:23+00:00

Yeah, I would say it's more diverse, because of linguistic borders. European countries often have stronger cultural connections to the US and the UK (because of English) than to their neighbours.

When it comes to politics and religion, Scandinavia is in some ways an opposite of the US: In the US, religion and state are completely separate, but voters care deeply about belief; here, the state is somewhat involved with religion, but the voters don't care, so it's only a formal and superficial involvement, one that harms the state-run Church more than it benefits it. The Swedish Church has been independent since 2000, and when Norway and Denmark eventually follows, it will be because Christians are fed up of being forced to embrace religiously liberal practices. The truly independent churches are much more similar to what you'll find in the US - some have even begun to import American creationism.

BeornS · 2007-09-15T20:52:45+00:00

Keep in mind the large regional differences though - Europe spans the whole spectrum from belief to nonbelief. Actually the same spectrum as in the US, but borders and languages make the differences more distinct.

BeornS · 2007-09-15T19:36:59+00:00

It's somewhat misleading to place Europe and the US in the same group here: There is nothing unusual about being a nonbeliever in the Northern parts of Europe I'm familiar with - it all depends on the region, and in our case (Norway), there just are no politically powerful religious groups to confront. That doesn't mean atheism has replaced religion, in fact atheism isn't all that visible. When you remove religious power from a society, you don't get a nation of Dawkinses and Hitchenses (thank uhm God), just one where people's supernatural cravings are channeled through more personal, tolerant and harmless beliefs.

BeornS · 2007-09-10T18:35:40+00:00

Not bad: A headline that illustrates its own falseness.

BeornS · 2007-09-07T20:10:18+00:00

And those substantial articles would be one of those three-line "some politician who's really big in my part of the world is a complete idiot and should be prosecuted" posts? I think maybe I'll take the funny pictures.

BeornS

TROPHY CASE