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The more of an IT flavor the job descriptions had, the less dangerous the company was. The safest kind were the ones that wanted Oracle experience. You never had to worry about those. You were also safe if they said they wanted C++ or Java developers. If they wanted Perl or Python programmers, that would be a bit frightening — that’s starting to sound like a company where the technical side, at least, is run by real hackers. If I had ever seen a job posting looking for Lisp hackers, I would have been really worried.
Is the technical side of some startup run by real hackers?
So the short explanation of why this 1950s language is not obsolete is that it was not technology but math, and math doesn’t get stale. The right thing to compare Lisp to is not 1950s hardware but the Quick sort algorithm, which was discovered in 1960 and is still the fastest general-purpose sort.
Math doesn't get stale and lisp is pure math
I’m not saying that you won’t get a lot of pressure to use what are perceived as “standard” technologies. At Via web we raised some eyebrows among VCs and potential acquirers by using Lisp. But we also raised eyebrows by using generic Intel boxes as servers instead of “industrial strength” servers like Suns, for using a then-obscure open source Unix called FreeBSD instead of a real commercial OS like Windows NT, for ignoring a supposed e-commerce standard called SET that no one now even remembers, and so on.
"standard" technologies
“industry best practice.” Its purpose is to shield the pointy-haired boss from responsibility: if he chooses something that is “industry best practice,” and the company loses, he can’t be blamed. He didn’t choose, the industry did.
"industry best practice"
For example, in the OO world you hear a good deal about “patterns.” I wonder if these patterns are not sometimes evidence of case (c), the human compiler, at work.8 When I see patterns in my programs, I consider it a sign of trouble. The shape of a program should reflect only the problem it needs to solve. Any other regularity in the code is a sign, to me at least, that I’m using abstractions that aren’t powerful enough — often that I’m generating by hand the expansions of some macro that I need to write.
Paul graham vs patterns
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. — C.S.LEWIS
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive
how many users make a critical mass? Off the top of my head, I’d say twenty. If a language had twenty separate users, meaning twenty users who decided on their own to use it, I’d consider it to be real. Getting there can’t be easy. I would not be surprised if it is harder to get from zero to twenty than from twenty to a thousand. The best way to get those initial twenty users is probably a trojan horse: give people an application they want, which happens to be written in the new language.
You want to convince somebody to use your new programming language, then write a cool app with it
A friend of mine rarely does anything the first time someone asks him. He knows that people sometimes ask for things they turn out not to want. To avoid wasting his time, he waits till the third or fourth time he’s asked to do something. By then whoever’s asking him may be fairly annoyed, but at least they probably really do want whatever they’re asking for.
People use to aks for things they don't need
The difference between design and research seems to be a question of new versus good. Design doesn’t have to be new, but it has to be good. Research doesn’t have to be good, but it has to be new. I think these two paths converge at the top: the best design surpasses its predecessors by using new ideas, and the best research solves problems that are not only new, but worth solving. So ultimately design and research are aiming for the same destination, just approaching it from different directions.
The difference between design and research
One of the reasons Jane Austen’s novels are so good is that she read them out loud to her family. That’s why she never sinks into self-indulgently arty descriptions of landscapes, or pretentious philosophizing. (The philosophy’s there, but it’s woven into the story instead of being pasted onto it like a label.) If you open an average “literary” novel and imagine reading it out loud to your friends as something you’d written, you’ll feel all too keenly what an imposition that kind of thing is upon the reader.
Jane austen method to don't write bore novels
The same is true in the arts, and particularly in oil painting. Most painters start with a blurry sketch and gradually refine it. If you work this way, then in principle you never have to end the day with something that looks unfinished. Indeed, there is even a saying among painters: “A painting is never finished. You just stop working on it.” This idea will be familiar to anyone who has worked on software.
A painting is never finished. You just stop working on it.
A good programming language ought to be better for explaining software than English. You should only need comments when there is some kind of kludge you need to warn readers about, just as on a road there are only arrows on parts with unexpectedly sharp curves.
A good programming language ought to be better for explaining software than english
the measure of a healthy organization is probably the degree to which negative thoughts are allowed. In places where great work is being done, the attitude usually seems to be critical and sarcastic rather than “positive” and “supportive.” The people I know who do great work think that they suck, but that everyone else sucks more.
Be critical about your own work
In No Logo, Naomi Klein says that clothing brands favored by “urban youth” do not try too hard to prevent shoplifting because in their target market the shoplifters are also the fashion leaders.
In "urban youth" the shoplifters are also the fashion leaders
One valuable thing you tend to get only in startups is uninterruptability. Different kinds of work have different time quanta. Someone proofreading a manuscript could probably be interrupted every fifteen minutes with little loss of productivity. But the time quantum for hacking is very long: it might take an hour just to load a problem into your head. So the cost of having someone from personnel call you about a form you forgot to fill out can be huge.
Startups and no interrupting programming
Many people feel confused and depressed in their early twenties. Life seemed so much more fun in college. Well, of course it was. Don’t be fooled by the surface similarities. You’ve gone from guest to servant. It’s possible to have fun in this new world. Among other things, you now get to go behind the doors that say “authorized personnel only.” But the change is a shock at first, and all the worse if you’re not consciously aware of it.
After college you go from guest to servant #esclavosModernos
Peter Norvig found that 16 of the 23 patterns in Design Patterns were “invisible or simpler” in Lisp (www.norvig.com/design-patterns).
Peter norvig on dessign patterns are easier on lisp
