thebear

One would certainly not want to argue with the statement that many people are incompetent, or at least not very good, at what they're paid to do. On the other hand, much of that alleged stupid and incompetent behavior turns out to be not stupid or incompetent at all if one spends a little time and effort on reflecting upon it. The opening example of the article, the Department of Education requiring applications to be sent by registered mail, is a perfect example. Why won't they accept an application unless it's sent by registered mail? If there is ever any kind of challenge, possibly resulting in litigation, over the way they handled an application, they have to have a complete paper trail of the process. An important part of that paper trail are the details of when and by whom the application was received. It would be a sign of incompetence on their part to accept an application that was not sent by registered mail.

I come across examples like this all the time. I find it amusing how often alleged stupidity and incompetence reveals more about the accuser than about the accused.

The discussion of sterility and sclerosis seems reasonable to me. On the subject of stagnation and repetition, I find that my perception is diametrically opposed to what the author of the book and Peter Thiel say. I am a baby boomer, and I am absolutely blown away by things like 3D printers and rocket boosters returning from space and being reused, not to mention the possibility of quantum computing. As far as the arts are concerned, I believe the difference between the olden days and today is that today, there is way more of everything rather than less. This causes an odd distortion of perception. In the 1960s, you could easily name a few progressive bands, musicians, movies, etc., because there were so few. Today, the stuff you can find on the Internet is vast, but there are no few big names to stand out. Or, more precisely, there are a few big names, but that's the repetitive stuff that the author laments. The new, creative, progressive stuff doesn't have those. Go on the Internet, you'll be surprised!

Have you seen the old girl who walks the streets of London, Dirt in her hair and her clothes in rags. She's no time for talking, she just keeps right on walking, Carrying her home in two carrier bags. So how can you tell me you're lonely, And say for you that the sun don't shine. Let me take you by the hand and walk with you the streets of London, Show you something to make you change your mind.

I'd like to reinforce what an earlier commenter has already hinted at, with a story of a collapsing marathon runner. A lot of hobbies get much more dangerous with increased ambitions. Always ask yourself if that's worth it. As someone once said, "He who does not sore with the eagles does not get sucked into jet engines." And they didn't shoot Ringo, did they.

Same here. I find that essay enormously helpful for evaluating one's current living situation and planning your future. Also, it provides a great way for explaining to others why you live where you live. I've been in Salt Lake City for a while now. People's reaction to telling them that typically falls somewhere in that awkward territory between surprise, pity, and condescension. I then tell them that like every great city, Salt Lake sends its inhabitants a very specific message. In fact, I feel it more strongly here than I ever have anywhere else. The message is, "You should be more responsible, and you should be a nicer person."

Author of the blog post here. I think you just made me aware of the true and deeper reason for my discomfort with C++: it's the fact that the convolutions are in the basic things. I am perfectly willing to put up with convolutions, annoyances, bugs, weaknesses etc. in anything I use, be it a programming language, a piece of software, a gadget, whatever. Nothing is perfect, and who am I to criticize others for the imperfections in their work. What annoys me is when the annoyances are in the basic things, in the most commonly used features. Make the basic things reasonably good, and keep the crap off to the side.

Author here. Quote from the first paragraph of my blog post: "The decision to implement the math backend of GreaterThanZero in Java was driven by other considerations, primarily the appeal of Google App Engine as a hosting platform."