Category: Society

What do you believe?

Edge.org is running their annual question of the year. This years question, asked and answered by notable intelligencia from around the country, is “WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IS TRUE EVEN THOUGH YOU CANNOT PROVE IT?”

Its an amazing question to ask of that particular group of people. What is also amazing is the number of contradictory “beliefs” that people have. Topping the list are: there is a God vs. no-god, reality is in the mind vs. reality exists apart from us, life on other planets vs. no intelligent life on other planets, and we will create conscienceness vs. conscienceness can only exist in living things.

I believe in, errr.. know, there is a God. What do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it?

The Slow Decay

For the first time in the 11 year history of the Index of Economic Freedom; the United States was not rated in the top ten.  Out of the 17 countries rated as having “free” economies, the U.S. tied for 12th.  This represents a low point in our countries economic history; although its not entirely unexpected.  The country that was, at one time, the pinnacle of economic freedom has slowly been eroding away.  The causes can be tracked to government spending, government regulation, and corporate welfare.  This kind of news bothers me as much (or more) than news about the erosion of our civil liberties.  Hopefully this will spur our countries leaders to pursue real tax and spending reform.

Software Flux

The software industry is in a state of rapid change.  The global connectivity provided by the Internet has put a damper on the ever archaic distribution and licensing methods of commercial software vendors.  This article by David Adams give a spectacular overview of the history of the software industry and the direction it is going.

Effect after the fall

What the Bubble Got Right is a great commentary about the dot-com Internet bubble, what things went wrong, and what things were done right. The reaction to the dot-com frenzy has been to over compensate in many ways and this article does a pretty good job of pointing out some of the things were true concerning the hype of the whole dot-com era.

When to speak

Inaction is often viewed as consent in our society. Commonly to the detriment to those imposed on. Why people choose to not act (for inaction IS as much a choice as action) when they see injustice is a question I leave to the reader but in the interest of discussion I bring you this article. Its basically a longer version of, “All that is needed for evil to succeed is for good people to do nothing” albeit with a beer-drinking goth slant.

My question is a matter of metrics. Where do we draw the line in the sand? Although I believe that governments should punish people based on their actions and not on their beliefs/thoughts; I even more strenuously concur that we must work against injustice, in any form. Do we refrain from going to see the racially motivated band? What if the band is not racially motivated but certain members are? What if the band is not and the members are not, but much of their clientele is? Or instead of the clientele, their producer… or distributor is? How many degrees? How far removed? I don’t know the answer (..yet) but the question is one that needs to be asked.

Thoughism

My buddy Jason’s website posted this link by Paul Graham.  Some of you will remember Paul from some of his technology essays.  “What You Can’t Say” is about moral fashions, how to identify them and how to respond to them.  Great article that can apply to all of us; regardless of our political/social/religious beliefs.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I have been blessed with the most wonderful family (and its getting larger all the time…) and the greatest friends one could ever possibly have. Thanks to all of you!

The Art of Hacking

Hackers and Painters is an essay by Paul Graham about “hacking” being more of a creative art than an actual science. Its is one of the best reads I have found online in a while. Originally seen at Slashdot.

To be fair and honest from the gate I must admit no not agreeing with many of the points that Paul makes in his essay. This is not really a concern to me because I, with very few exceptions, find fault with things everyone says.

What I find interesting about the article is how much rings true in my own experiences. Not that things that “ring true” make for a good evaluation of real truth. Communism appealed to so many people because it seem to do such a good job of explaining problems that they saw in their own world. But that being said…

My CS background was from a PhD is Mathematics who was bound and determined to convince us that software development was the physical extention of mathematics. I program by putting something down in code, trying to compile it, debug it, and see what happens. This does not jive well with the basic “workings” of mathematics, start with the known and move to extend from that. I, also, spent a lot of time feeling bad because I did not “know” theory.

Looking back over code I developed just a year ago; it becomes blazingly obvious that I am “working” on applications, not “solving” problems. My applications constantly change as my skill and style improve. During my freetime I work on applications because I love developing them, changing them, molding them, and seeing what the outcome becomes.

That being said, I spend most of my work hours architecting and designing. At work I am most assuredly a software engineer/architect (at least most of the time) from the standpoint of implementing changes and creating software designs. So maybe the answer is that software development is BOTH art and engineering. It can be, for hackers, something done to express and create while still being, for non-hackers, be a science used to discover and understand. Heck, most architects I know consider themselves artists and not engineers.