On Saturday, 28 April 2018 at 00:17:29 UTC, Nick Sabalausky
(Abscissa) wrote:
On 04/27/2018 06:29 AM, Chris wrote:
On Thursday, 26 April 2018 at 02:31:07 UTC, Nick Sabalausky
(Abscissa) wrote:
[...]
Technology, science etc. are no exception to (natural) human
behavior: do as everybody else does, sure it's good. The
problem is that pragmatism ("I have to write in JS, if I want
to write a web app") turns into an ideology/relgion ("It's the
best thing we have, if it wasn't, we'd be using something
else, wouldn't we?"). Rationalizing irrational bs and
irrationalizing the rational is a defense mechanism of humans.
Groupthink and tribalism (hippsters) are part of our DNA,
sometimes it makes sense, sometimes it's an obstacle.
That may be so, but a big part of being a participant in
civilized society, and far more than that, being a
professional, means having the basic will, ability and
responsibility to utilize our higher-level cognitive functions
(which we've also evolved and are baked into our genetics) to
selectively override the baser instincts, and to discern when
and where it's appropriate to do so.
It's a basic responsibility of being human, and it's a
fundamental qualification of being a professional in a
technical field.
I understand perfectly well what you mean. In theory, yes. But
reality is different. It takes a lot of time and effort to bring
about changes once something has been established. Just think of
how much harder it gets to decide where to go for a drink the
more people are involved. And usually you end up in a place
nobody is really happy with.
