On 02/17/2014 09:39 AM, Parks, Raymond wrote: > In both of my examples, learning the more primitive methods means that one > learns the foundational knowledge that makes using the modern methods easier > and higher in quality.
Precisely. An additional point, though, is that "survival" across infrastructure changes is similar to proof through isomorphism. The objective is to establish a kind of Platonic form (or "category") for any given set of tools, then whatever tools you find lying about that are close enough to that form will do just fine. (Seriously. E.g. how is bandcamp.com different from amazon.com? Git vs. Mercurial? Pinterest vs. Instagram? Boinc vs. Tidbit? Cloud Foundry vs. Heroku? Etc.) Of course, to think this way is antithetic to what the hyperbole machines out there want you to think. I attribute the hype mostly to the venture capitalists and their desire for 10-fold RoI exits (or at least the consumerist product differentiation that drives our economy). But it could easily be caused by the same thing that causes our 2 party political system, something like an addiction to convenient pigeon-holing. -- ⇒⇐ glen ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
