John D. Mitchell's Blog

Is Critical Thinking for Software Developers?

"Mr. Ed" deconstructs the all too common tendency of developers to make horrendously vague propositions in his Basic Critical Thinking for Software Developers blog entry.

His primary example is an assertion about pair programming so extreministas should definitely go wild. :-)

Comments

• Sour grapes :-(
  I visited the site; I was, to say the least underwhelmed. Admittedly, I have a low tolerance for curmudgeons: Those who arrogantly criticise everything; while at the same time accomplishing nothing significant themselves.

  I think a 'tried-and-true' saying can be paraphrased here, to accurately summarise that site:

  Those who can hack, those who can't hacknot! :-)

  Posted by: cajo on January 19, 2004 at 01:45 PM

• natural language is not formal logic
  While is a very good Introduction to Logic 101, the problem is that people simply don't communicate on a day to day basis using a rigorous formal logic in their language. Natural language is full of imprecise terms, shared implicit meanings, generalisations and so forth.

  I have found sometimes that attempting to elucidate further clarification from somebody making such an unfalsifiable proposition in a mailing list is frequently interpreted by that person as an attack and responded to as such.

  In the end i don't think it's anything remarkable, in fact it's rather obvious to me. But its applicability to simple everyday discourse is potentially disputable.

  Posted by: scotartt on January 19, 2004 at 04:27 PM

• Sour grapes :-(
  Cajo, I hope you save a little tolerance for at least one critical curmudgeon, for your own sake.

  Posted by: tcowan on January 19, 2004 at 07:47 PM

• Sour grapes :-(
  I read your comment; I was, to say the least underwhelmed. Admittedly, I have a low tolerance for fools. Those who make unjustified generalizations; while at the same time accomplishing nothing significant themselves.

  I think a 'tried-and-true' saying can be paraphrased here, to accurately summaries your comment:

  Pearls before swine.

  Posted by: mr_ed on January 21, 2004 at 04:50 AM

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