[ prog / sol / mona ]

prog


Is it necessary to buy into "Worse is Better" and "The Right Thing"?

1 2020-10-03 06:18

I hear these phrases thrown around all the time and I feel like I do when I go to the co-op for the bulk spices and weird veggies and get bombarded with organic-is-healthier propaganda.

2 2020-10-03 07:11 *

This is a good analogy.

3 2020-10-03 07:34

Most people don't understand for why machines exist. A computer which returns obviously incorrect results is useless, and one which returns subtly incorrect results is worse than useless.

UNIX weenies were never taught for why the machine exists. They may as well believe it exists for them to impress others and look cool. I hate UNIX, only because I'm forced to use it every day.

To use the analogy, it would be like people complaining they can't get fresh vegetables, only soda and canned food, and then people piss in their gardens when they try to do it themselves, mocking them for not wanting the same food. The point of food isn't nourishment and sustenance, to such idiots, but to taste good and socialize, so they don't care that the food occasionally has bugs or their feces isn't the right colour, because that's just the way it is.

4 2020-10-03 07:56

>>3 I don't disagree that:

A computer which returns obviously incorrect results is useless, and one which returns subtly incorrect results is worse than useless.

I don't disagree with that, I just mainly disagree with the notion that Unix users are somehow at fault for a series of profit-driven decisions the companies that make Lisp Machines made in the past and continue to make. It is no unix users fault that the tech to make a Lisp chip and the software to run on it don't exist. Why not be mad at Paul Graham, say, who uses all his Y-combinator money to talk about how great CL is, then add another dialect of Lisp, then another, when he could be working on (or finding the people to work on) the LM equivalent of RISC-V. I mean it's only 10 years old and already you can get development boards from SiFive or Seeed (or probably others).

5 2020-10-03 08:06

>>3 And I guess the other thing is sometimes I hear people say something isn't "the right thing" and I get the idea that what really mean is "that's not how I would do it."

6 2020-10-03 12:49 *

>>4

the tech to make a Lisp chip and the software to run on it don't exist.

I wouldn't be so sure about that but it's not the same for sure.
https://opencores.org
https://3lproject.org
Still unrelated to whatever these nonexistent """unix users""" are but making a cnc machine so you can assemble circuit boards and attach ics automatically isn't easy. Then there's the radiated shit, I got permanent burns from that. Freedom isn't free.

7 2020-10-03 14:51 *

>>3
This is also a good analogy. What is someone who just eats to eat, not even in an healthy or social fashion here?

8 2020-10-03 18:18

>>1
You probably already know this but it's not as simple as organic foods good inorganic foods bad. For example if your food is organic you can't have arsenic laced chicken, but if you're are eating a suitably diverse diet and your body's detoxification mechanisms are operating at normal levels you should be fine. Typically issues only arise due to either failing detoxification systems (often occurring due to an insufficient diet or illness), or chronic over exposure due to having a restrictive diet.

That being said you can't go wrong with having less arsenic in your chicken. Intelligently preparing for exceptional cases so that members of society don't have to might also be a worth while investment on the part of society. Ironically this is a similar argument to that behind mandating salt be iodized and mandatory food fortifications within countries generally. If as a society through some upfront thought and effort we can prevent the exceptional cases of arsenic poisoning and iodine deficiency we probably should.

9


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