All Dressed Up With Nowhere To Go

     This is actually a response that I had to another blog and its subsequent discussion.  It was going to just be a comment, but as usual, it became something that would be better off left as its own entry with a reference to the original work.  Make sure you read it first (it’s not that long) and also the blog it references (also not very long.  Seriously, what is my problem?) so that what follows makes sense.

     Ugh.  I am so not reading what I think I am reading.  No, I agree that fiction is not inherently “wrong” or “evil”.  However, the problem with fiction is just that.  It’s fiction.  It’s a complete other world, universe, belief system, etc. that does not exist but in the minds of the participants.  If taken too far, this becomes a means of escapism for people, a way to leave and ignore the world as it is in favor of this more pleasing alternative.

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     This started out as a comment, but became too long and thus would seem impolite to post as one.  It is in response to Hilton’s discussion on the 30-1 ratio gap between the productivity of “awesome” programmers (to use his usual term) to sucky ones.  The general idea I have gotten is that those in the programming field seem to think that they are unique and inherently different from every other field, some how, and that this statistic proves it.  To me, I see this kind of disparity in every field, but it’s not always easily measureable and so it doesn’t always show up in the statistics that get published.  So the following is my response.

     I still hold to my position that this vast difference between the “greats” and the “sucks” is not unique to the field of programming.  Part of it is due to programming being a very young field.  A lot of it is still being explored and is still unknown.  I’m going to propose that many of these “30″ programmers oftentimes seem incapable of teaching the “1″ programmers what they know.  Sometimes this is because their ego gets in the way, other times because it’s still a bit intangible.

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     I would like to preface this by stating that what follows originally started out as a response-post.  However, I soon realized it was going way beyond the scope of just a response and needed to be set aside as an idea to be fleshed out all on its own.  I really don’t want to go back and re-write all of it so I’ll just present it here as it was.  I think it’s written such that it works without having to touch it up to “blog post” status (mostly), but there may be a couple of confusions so it would be helpful to read Homosexuality and Modernism.  Were it a comment, it would have followed MissJedi’s first comment, comment number eight.

     I agree from a moral perspective on the practice, as I’ve said.  But the thing is, we do not live in a theocracy.  We live in a democratic (never mind the semantics regarding the representation) nation that claims that my religious/moral beliefs are no more or less valid than yours.  In that light, it seems to me that the primary consideration the law should consider is how something affects the personal freedoms and liberties of others.

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     While perusing an associate’s writings, I came across this article of his on homosexuality and the subsequent discussion on it.  It’s an issue I’ve wrestled with in my mind a great deal, especially when I found out one of my step-brothers was gay.  To me, he was a shining example of what a faithful Latter-Day Saint should be.  He knew of the doctrine and of current events and enjoyed discussing them (not debating them, which I still find amazing).  He was kind, funny, and almost always pleasant mannered.  The only time I heard him raise his voice or yell was at me once and I thoroughly deserved it. 

     I looked forward every year to Christmas and New Year’s as a kid, not because of the presents or time off or holiday season, but because Robert would come up from Salt Lake City and I and my step-siblings would get together to play games.  We played board games like Monopoly, Life, and Scrabble.  We would even play a couple of card games and games like Jenga. 

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Har har.  Macs are pandering to people too timid to accept life as a fully technological experience.  PCs used to pander to specialized nerds, but they’re getting better.  They still have a ways to go.

The KISS mode of thinking (Keep It Simple, Stupid) is a good thing to follow.  But don’t go so far overboard trying to keep things simple that you actually fall into thinking KISS: Keep It Stupid Simple.  Some of the programming traditions, such as the loading screen that my friend and cousin Hilton, describe as being blindly followed, exist for a reason.  They work.  Admittedly there are some that probably could be tossed, or at least reworked.  While I haven’t been in the world of programming and programmers for long, I am certain that there are a multitude of the programmers he described that put out…less than optimal programs.

The problem with making computers and programs think like a person is that they don’t.  On the very fundamental basis of its existence, computers think differently than people.  Our languages and our very thought process is built on the basis of assumptions and our ability to handle imprecision and ambiguity.  Our current computer model cannot handle situations that have multiple interpretations.
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My title might sound all deep and technical, but it’s over a recent diplomatic “crisis” that has anything but “deep” basing.  Perhaps you have heard of the riots and protests surrounding a Denmark newspaper publishing twelve drawings of the prophet Mohammad?  In case you haven’t, the following is a link to a CNN story on the subject: Mohammad Cartoon Article.  I also recommend this article for some more information: Mohammad Cartoons.  Yes, I will be providing a brief summary but go read the articles anyways.

For the sake of my discussion, I will summarize as follows.  In September, a Danish newspaper published twelve political cartoon-style drawings of the Muslim prophet, Mohammad.  So what?  Well, in Muslim law, it is blasphemous for anyone to create any depiction of any religious figure, especially Mohammad.  There are a few variations of this throughout the various sects of Islam, but all clerics are united in the interpretation of the Quran that forbids the depictions.  The reason for this is to avoid falling into idolatry, which seems reasonable enough.  Though my personal views would disagree with the execution, it is not my place to criticize a religion for a belief it has and is prima facie why I am not a Muslim.

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Perhaps because I’m a guy, but I’ve never really noticed the dangers of eye-contact (or really contact in a more generalized sense). However, I should qualify that with the fact that it is slightly awkward for me anyway to make direct eye contact and contact with new people in general.

I notice the isolation you mention even here on campus with people desperately looking at some terribly uninteresting crack to avoid acknowledging the person passing by. And then you notice it, and you also find a terribly unfascinating splotch on the sidewalk and there becomes a tangible “field of awkwardness” between you two and you both manage to dart glances at each other at the same time (because while you don’t want to look directly at them, you still are curious to see what they look like) making things even more uncomfortable, mounting until you just pass each other (I dunno, expecting the other person to suddenly pull out a sword or something at you), after which you both breathe a sigh of relief.

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