Second blog entry where I try to identify problems in programming related discourse after being a part of it for years.
Part1:
Thoughts on why sometimes programming/software engineering discussions suck (part 1)
1: Fallacies
Fallacies aren't limited to programming, it's something that affects every kind of discussion - those that have direct impact on our life e.g arguments with family, friends, coworkers, etc.
And indirect or less direct - like arguing on the internet about politics, religion, covid, etc.
Despite topic of fallacies being well-documented and researched then we still suck at it and we see it almost everyday, everywhere. It poisons discussions and decreases their quality.
For example recently "Azure CTO" wrote about git that it is "(...) One of the most unintuitive, clunky interfaces of any software I've ever used."
And surprisingly there was a lot of comments like "Azure has poor UI too", "MS products tend to have poor UI/UX", "How about MS Teams?"
The problem with this kind of arguing is that... it is irrelevant.
Just because MS Teams may have poor UI/UX then it is irrelevant when we discuss git.
At best you may call Azure CTO a hypocrite, but just be aware that
you may be a hypocrite and still be right - I think that a lot of people forgets about or are not aware of this simple, yet powerful fact.
2: Technologies kinda live or die by memes
NoSQL bad because Mongo bad (either due to
Jepsen's report or
Mongo DB Is Web Scale).
Blockchain bad because Crypto bad.
Rust annoying because too many people say good stuff about it.
Enterprise tech bad.
I'd lie if I said that I've never or never will meme tech that I've never used e.g by posting this screenshoot
but sometimes it's just sad how memes affect how some tech is perceived.
I think that at the end of the day it very often falls under stereotypes.