raganwald
(This is a snapshot of my old weblog. New posts and selected republished essays can be found at raganwald.com.)

Monday, April 09, 2007
  Quote. Unquote.


I admit I live in a bubble. The thing is, my bubble is the one where they develop the technologies that you’ll be using in your bubble in ten years.

Basically, I hang around with people who are good programmers. I realize this is not a random cross section of computer users. But it is a disproportionately important subset, because what they use, other people will be using later. These were the people who were using microcomputers in 1980; now everyone is; the people who were using email in 1988; now everyone is; the people who were using the Web in 1995; now everyone is; etc etc.

—Two of user paulgraham’s comments on reddit.com


Ok, take a deep breath. Forget about whether you find these statements arrogant or elitist. Forget about whether you think they are true or not today. Forget about whether they were once true (I know that on Saturday, November 9th, 2002, they were absolutely true).

The question I ask myself, and that I think you might want to try asking yourself, is this:

Am I developing the ideas, technologies, and products today that the rest of the world will be using in ten years?

If not, what’s stopping me?

p.s. Don’t miss the comments!

p.p.s. And of course, this is not an orginal thought on my part.

Labels:

 

Comments on “Quote. Unquote.:
Let me ask you this. Say you are one of the many developers who back then worked on a Netscape server product, that has long gone the way of the AOL. And that server product brought in the revenues to afford developing what we know today as Firefox. Where does that put you?

I think that comment is arrogant, elitist and self-serving.
 
Assaf:

You're being a little oblique. If you have a question to ask of Netscape's engineers... why not ask one of them?

What is it you're trying to ask me? I can guess, and of course I might be wrong.

For example, you might be trying to ask me if I think that a life working on things that make money that is then used to fund things that I admire is worthwhile.

Is that what you're asking? If so, my answer is that it is not for me to say what you should consider worthwhile.

Not everyone works in technology. Some people dig ditches. Others run corporations. Some rock climb professionally. Whatever.

But let me make this perfectly clear: it is not my responsibility to publish a blog that celebrates everything by everyone, everywhere.

That does not mean I personally denigrate other choices. But I am under no obligation whatsoever to give equal time to other choices. This blog expresses my values.

That means that some points of view are celebrated. And on others I may choose to express no opinion.

I am going to assume that when you say I think that comment is arrogant, elitist and self-serving you meant my own words.

Well, that's too darned too bad you feel that way. Every choice we make in life opens one door and closes another. To celebrate opening a door and pursuing a goal is worthy.

So I say, here is this thing I consider worthy. If you consider something else more worthy, your answer to my question is simply "I made another choice and I'm happy with my choice."

That's fine with me. My question is really directed at those who dream of the future and wonder if there's something they can do to influence it.

And my challenge is to prove that there isn't.
 
By the way Assaf, I apologise for my rudeness in not thanking you for your comment before replying.

Thank you.

Agree or disagree, the meta-point is that my words were about challenging myself: about whether my actions are in harmony with my values.

Your comment is also about values.

You can go anywhere to discuss concurrency protocols or DSL approaches.

But questions about why we are here and what we will make of the blink of an eye we have in the Universe are the most important questions we can ask each other.

I take your challenge in that vein.
 
Ok, that was confusing on my part. I think "If not, what’s stopping me?" (your words) is motivating, empowering and exactly the quality of thought I came to expect of you, and why I enjoy reading your blog.

I think Paul Graham's statement was arrogant and elitist. It's not setting you up for success, it's setting you up for failure. If you're trying to break new grounds, you have to accept that some of your good ideas will not survive the passage of time. Some code may be lost when companies die, projects go belly up, or for whatever other reason.

Can we influence the future? Yes. But we need more people to go our there and experiment, take risks, try something new, teach us what to do and what not. Even if the result of these ideas, good as they are, will not survive to the next bubble.

To me trying to make the software world a better place, in whatever way you can, is more important than being able to tell people in retrospect "look how wonderful I am!"
 
Oh. Ah! Err... I hope I was vehement without being vulgar!

Ok, so discussing PG's words now. I can certainly understand why people might take them that way.

In fact, I carefully pointed out that the words might be considered arrogant or elitist. And people might have varying ideas about whether they are true today or not (although having seen Steve Jobs in action, I never count a man out just because he has already succeeded once).

But in the spirit of finding the chunks of gravy in a bowl of dry kibble, I look at the words and ask myself, "what positive thing can I take from them?"

And that's what I tried to share with you. It sounds like we are in violent agreement.
 
I may just have to deny you the Blogger Rules Of Conduct Merit Badge or whatever it is that everyone is so keen on refusing :-)
 
Separately, I don't think Paul is arrogant in making this foresight claim. Having done the same thing (build in one bubble, use in the other), I can tell you the bar is not that high. But he has a diverse portfolio of investments, a talent pool of risk taking developers on tap, and only answers to himself. Some of his companies will make it, some won't, but statistically he'll have enough to claim at least one success. How many software developers can afford this luxury?
 




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