By: Jeff Darcy

Jeff Darcy — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 14:01:33 +0000

I’d like to propose a fourth hypothesis: that computer scientists’s behavior is affected by regular interaction with their even more hypercritical colleagues in the computer industry. Working programmers are notorious for their tendency to trash others’ work. In addition to the hypotheses you mention, common theories include the relatively high number of programmers who are socially inept or maladjusted to the point of it being a medically diagnosable condition (most often Asperger’s), or the deliberate rejection of social nicety as a form of inefficiency (related to the previous hypothesis IMO). I’ll add one more. Many working programmers work in the intensely competitive startup culture. In addition to all the usual competitive behaviors, the notion of “disruption” has really taken root there. It’s not sufficient to prove that your product is good, or even that it’s better than some other, but many startup folks seem to think it’s necessary to show how previous approaches are *total* dead ends with no possible value or chance of redemption now that The New Hotness has come along to disrupt that entire segment of the industry. Even attempts to adapt older technology to newer needs are derided as investments in a failed model. Academics in general don’t seem to do this. They look for the value even of projects that might have failed overall, gleaning what they can from the described experience instead of rejecting it part and parcel. Given the free motion of people between CS academe and industry, though, it might not be surprising that the startup crowd’s “scorched earth” tactics have not only set the tone for the rest of industry but gained a foothold in the ivory tower as well.

Comments on: Are Computer Scientists Hypercritical?

By: Jeff Darcy