On Mar 29, 9:38 pm, Nathan Rice <nathan.alexander.r...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The mathematics of the 20th century, (from the early 30s onward) tend > to get VERY abstract, in just the way Joel decries. Category theory, > model theory, modern algebraic geometry, topos theory, algebraic graph > theory, abstract algebras and topological complexes are all very > difficult to understand because they seem so incredibly abstract, yet > most of them already have important applications. I'm 100% positive > if you just presented Joel with seminal papers in some of those areas, > he would apply the "astronaut" rubber stamp, because the material is > challenging, and he wouldn't get it (I love math, and I've had to read > some papers 10+ times before they click). Nathan, Don't worry too much about Joel Spolsky, and worry even less about people that allude to him. Joel Spolksy is an early 21st century businessman. He's a smart guy with decent writing skills and semi-interesting thoughts, but he's not gonna change the world. He runs his business by promoting pragmatic processes, writing blogs, procuring comfortable chairs for developers, renting nice loft space in NYC, and building some useful, but basically unoriginal, websites and apps. Everything that Joel Spolsky has ever said in his blog has already been put into practice 100 times over by a bunch of similarly pragmatic early 21st century folk. If you really like math, it is no surprise that you find the current state of computer programming a bit inelegant. 90% of what programmers do in the early 21st century is move the data from HERE to THERE, then another 9% is placing the data in just the right part of the screen. I'm exaggerating a bit, but we're still in the backwaters. It's all engineering now; it's all breeding the faster horse. Or so it seems. There's a natural ebb and flow to progress. In the early to mid 20th century, there were tremendous advances in math, science, and technology, and maybe it's gonna take a full century or two of playing around with shit and arguing about stupid shit until the dust finally settles and we make another quantum jump. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
