Yes, I am a programmer, of the professional software engineering type.
I and most of the programmers I’ve been in contact with (at least from the hacker subculture, not the corporate software engineering types) seem to prefer the blunt and hyperbolic criticism so long as it’s informative.
Have you considered how much this aspect of hacker culture excludes programmers who otherwise might make valuable contributions? Programmers who don’t prefer hyperbolic criticism (or at least can’t rationalize self-reporting that they prefer it) won’t stick around in an environment where that is the norm.
Also, the sentence I objected to, “I hate this feature with an abiding hatred”, adds no useful information. (Maybe you think it reflects the importance of the issue, but I don’t think prioritizing by expressiveness of the users is an effective strategy.)
For some indication of how this issue affects actual LW developers, see this post.
The impression I get is that hackers consider the information benefit of allowing it to be worth the collateral damage to potential developers, for more or less the same reasons that people use Crocker’s Rules. That is only an impression; I am near to, but not part of, said culture, and cannot speak for it.
Upvoted for the concrete example.
(something about the echo in your first line makes me feel like my phrasing offended you. For purposes of debugging my social module, I would appreciate it if you confirm or deny that.)
Yes, I am a programmer, of the professional software engineering type.
Have you considered how much this aspect of hacker culture excludes programmers who otherwise might make valuable contributions? Programmers who don’t prefer hyperbolic criticism (or at least can’t rationalize self-reporting that they prefer it) won’t stick around in an environment where that is the norm.
Also, the sentence I objected to, “I hate this feature with an abiding hatred”, adds no useful information. (Maybe you think it reflects the importance of the issue, but I don’t think prioritizing by expressiveness of the users is an effective strategy.)
For some indication of how this issue affects actual LW developers, see this post.
The impression I get is that hackers consider the information benefit of allowing it to be worth the collateral damage to potential developers, for more or less the same reasons that people use Crocker’s Rules. That is only an impression; I am near to, but not part of, said culture, and cannot speak for it.
Upvoted for the concrete example.
(something about the echo in your first line makes me feel like my phrasing offended you. For purposes of debugging my social module, I would appreciate it if you confirm or deny that.)