I have heard plenty of stories (and seen examples) of software engineers who only know how to make software using the particular frameworks and tools they are familiar with, and flounder if e.g. given just a text editor containing an empty document and asked to write code to do some simple task. (Or if asked to do some more complicated task for which the tools they know are ill suited.)
That seems not a million miles for what being unable to “take off” a framework looks like when translated from “frameworks for thinking” to “frameworks for developing software”.
Your example helped me draw out a useful distinction.
I can imagine the programmers you’re alluding to. In the put-in-front-of-a-blank-doc scenario, I can guess a few thoughts they could be thinking:
1. “I don’t actually have the skills to do task ABC without my pet framework”
2. “I can’t even imagine how one would go about task ABC without my pet framework”
3. “I declare it to be a general impossibility for one to do task ABC without my pet framework”
#1 and #2 seem to be failures of skill/training. #3 is the sneaky one that is bad epistemic hygiene.
Christians rarely say, “I’m not clever enough to see how morality could work without God”, but instead say, “You can’t have morality without God.”
I’d be very surprised to find examples of software engineers who claimed #3.
I’d guess that the fact that most people know or at least have heard of someone who is way more competent than they are makes it harder for them to claim #3.
I have heard plenty of stories (and seen examples) of software engineers who only know how to make software using the particular frameworks and tools they are familiar with, and flounder if e.g. given just a text editor containing an empty document and asked to write code to do some simple task. (Or if asked to do some more complicated task for which the tools they know are ill suited.)
That seems not a million miles for what being unable to “take off” a framework looks like when translated from “frameworks for thinking” to “frameworks for developing software”.
Your example helped me draw out a useful distinction.
I can imagine the programmers you’re alluding to. In the put-in-front-of-a-blank-doc scenario, I can guess a few thoughts they could be thinking:
1. “I don’t actually have the skills to do task ABC without my pet framework”
2. “I can’t even imagine how one would go about task ABC without my pet framework”
3. “I declare it to be a general impossibility for one to do task ABC without my pet framework”
#1 and #2 seem to be failures of skill/training. #3 is the sneaky one that is bad epistemic hygiene.
Christians rarely say, “I’m not clever enough to see how morality could work without God”, but instead say, “You can’t have morality without God.”
I’d be very surprised to find examples of software engineers who claimed #3.
I’d guess that the fact that most people know or at least have heard of someone who is way more competent than they are makes it harder for them to claim #3.
I agree that this is a useful distinction.