By the way, I *do* object to the implicit idea that technical (and possibly "scientific" or "math" too?) discussions are likely to lack substance,
I had a lovely discussion with a bright engineer recently about a very explicit code project, Angular. Certainly a detailed discussion of its "code" and "architecture" would be boring to all but those interested in Angular. But then a lovely distinction was made: that Angular was different from other code bases by being a framework for building "Domain Specific Languages". Again, I don't expect folks to grasp the down and dirty here, but suffice it to say the DSL comment raised the tech talk to a much more subtle level, pulled me out of the bits, and we did have a conversation about it later. So lets try to not have too many assumptions here about content. I can delete conversations easily if I find them annoying. -- Owen On Sun, Jan 26, 2014 at 4:16 PM, Owen Densmore <[email protected]> wrote: > Well, if you were to read the content of the thread, it reminds me of an > occasional >> theme that also occurs here. It's the notion that conversations about >> philosophy are stupid and technical topics are substantive. > > > As a possible target of having that sentiment, I'd like to be clear that I > don't hold it. > > What I do object to are the traps of: > - Deadly Embrace: The idea that if we only go at it long enough, we'll > agree somehow. In math, convergence. Judging from the length of this type > of thread, I think they are divergent. > - Semantic Arguments: Endless fine points on the meaning of the words and > goal of the conversation. > - Ill Defined: This actually is less a problem as we tend to notice the > ill defined discussions and correct. But it is annoying. As I am :) > - TL;DR: I'd prefer long posts to be in two parts, as is becoming standard > on the web: summarize in a paragraph or two the core of the discussion, > followed by "TL;DR" (Too Long; Didn't Read), followed by the detail, > especially when difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. > > There, that's not so bad is it? > > -- Owen > >
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