users desire a practical feature, however a developer, instead, desires an opportunity to explain why the data structures of enough video formats resemble one-way linked-lists so the feature is “algorithmically impossible”, users counter with examples of other pieces of software that implement the feature, the gymnastics begin, and it becomes apparent to us, if not the people involved, that a fundamental philosophical debate is occurring about the nature of what ‘solving a problem’ even means
- @jk – 09172023-040747
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for the user, they want to press a button and get the expected result most of the time. for the developer, they want an optimal, perfect algorithm that solves every mathematically possible permutation of the problem at any scale, and, seeing the mess the real world presents them, would rather completely elide the feature than entertain the idea that a problem can be solved satisfactorily in a way that isn’t fully generalizable
- @jk – 09172023-041101
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think about how many amazing things computers could be doing that they’re not because the people programming them think like this. think of all the useful, beautiful, and meaningful patterns and arrangements of data the world is missing because a smart and talented person is nevertheless trying to solve a problem as if it was a rubix cube, finding that one of the sides never lines up, and throwing the thing in the trash rather than suffering the indignity of accepting the chaos of reality
- @jk – 09172023-041424
