From: Michael Wiik (mwiik@messagenet.com)
Date: Thu Sep 19 2002 - 12:49:04 MDT
Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:
> Join the club. Although I must admit, I /do/ understand why /some/
> people see me as comabtive/offensive/whatever: people who aren't
> used to detailed, rigorous, intellectual combat often misinterpret
> it as personal.
Oh, I can see that, but maybe I'll be forgiven as I didn't realize the
list charter was for endless rigorous intellectual combat. Being
critical certainly has a place, though I'd put it somewhere ahead of the
creative process.
For example, years ago we had team code reviews where we'd go over
someone's code line-by-line to find inefficiencies. Perhaps we were
coddling the programmers, when what we should have been doing was get
together and look over the shoulder of the programmer as he or she was
typing. For example, he or she might type:
int stz;
And then we could have rigorous intellectual combat over whether 'stz'
was really an appropriate name for the variable, and debate for hours
over whether the variable was really needed anyway or if it couldn't be
placed into some higher level structure.
Of course, we may not get any real work done using this method, but we'd
certainly increase our skills in rigorous intellectual combat.
Some years ago I read some Tim Leary on how the most neurotic, one-track
people always talked the most. I pretty much shut up after reading that.
Perhaps we might compare the number of things that have been built with
a vision, and firm confidence -- perhaps faith -- that one was creating
something of value, versus what has been created with rigorous
intellectual combat.
Like I said up front, being critical certainly has a place, but we also
need a space to learn and be creative. Lee Corbin, in my threads on
American Education, gave me no such space at all. Which is why he's a
troll.
-Mike
P.S. And no, I have no interest in going over the archives to prove my
assertion about Lee Corbin's behavior in the American Education threads.
So, provide any argument against it and I'll concede, and you can enjoy
your hollow victory. (I have work to do).
--
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