[Darmani]

You can think about the effect of coding style instead of letting the experts think for you.

If you are doing a Topcoder round, then the random Topcoder user's advice is probably better than Carmack's. Carmack or Torvalds would probably tell you to use a variable name that gives a lot of information about its purpose, so that other people will find it easier to read your code. The Topcoder user might tell you to use a cryptic abbreviation that helps you remember a variable's purpose but clues little to the outside reader, since Topcoder users are penalized for allowing others to find their bugs. When implementing an algorithm, Carmack or Torvalds would code it as part of an extensible system with an API so that it can be used for many purposes. The Topcoder user might code it with no potential for reuse, but would do it in the way easiest to code quickly without making a mistake.

[freshhawk]

"You can think about the effect of coding style instead of letting the experts think for you."

Right, because what could those experts possibly have to teach you? Fuck that intellectual crap, brogrammers are here to crank out some code yo! Just because those dinosaurs have spent "thousands of hours" studying and trying out different programming styles and concepts means I should listen to them? This is the internet age man. Some guy in a github comment told me different and github is cool.

It's like those functional programming professors who try and talk about how continuation passing style was a bad road to go down because of maintenance problems and how difficult refactoring and just reasoning about code becomes in large systems.

Fuck that egghead noise, node.js has callbacks and node is how you get webscale.

I'm right with you bro!

[slowpoke]

You completely and utterly missed the point, in addition to just being needlessly rude.

The point of your parent was "don't let the experts think for you", not "screw the experts" - that's a very important distinction. You should form your own opinions, not just uncritically adopt the opinion of some expert. It's unquestionable that expert knowledge and experience is important - but nothing beats forming your own (hopefully informed) opinion.

[freshhawk]

Who said "let the experts think for you"? No one. You were arguing against "give the experts' opinions more weight than others, often a lot more"

"You should form your own opinions, not just uncritically adopt the opinion of some expert."

False dichotomy again, there is a lot of ground between "uncritically adopt the opinion of some expert" and "forming your own opinion and hoping it's informed".

You should find that middle ground, it's where all the smart people are.

I didn't miss the point at all, I just completely disagree with you. I don't think it was needlessly rude either, it was sarcastic. And I feel no need to treat people who are promoting anti-intellectualism with kid gloves.

[Darmani]

Intellectualism is not about showing off how much you agree with authorities. Intellectualism is about thinking and understanding, eventually until you become one.

When discussing coding style, you can quote experts. Or you can understand their arguments, understand the impact and tradeoffs of coding decisions, and realize why they are true. And in the case of Topcoder, about as far as possible from building large systems, you can realize that the optimum style changes and understand why.

I think there's a broad trend to treat code as magic, something where anything can happen. Most people learn coding styles by being given suggestions, and then noticing from experience that they like it better. If you reject this mindset and believe that code is orderly, then this advice changes from Wisdom of the Elders (TM) into an engineering calculation. I specialize in automated restructuring of software architecture, so this mindset is something I try hard to fight against.

[freshhawk]

I don't see how this applies to me taking issue with the parents "figure it out yourself instead of letting the experts think for you" statement.

"Intellectualism is not about showing off how much you agree with authorities"

My point was that intellectualism is not about agreeing with authorities but giving proper weight to the opinions of intellectuals in the field when weighed against lay opinions or smaller groups of intellectuals.

You certainly don't seem to be arguing for the post-modern interpretation I was arguing against where expert opinion is considered "just another opinion, equally valid" so I'm confused why you think my stance is almost the opposite of what I was stating.

[Darmani]

The opinion of an intellectual is indeed stronger Bayesian evidence than that of a layperson. But if they have an opinion, they should provide an argument to back it up, and that argument is far more important.

My first comment hit the advice to always follow Carmack over the random Topcoder user. It's important to understand what makes a best practice a best practice rather than just listening. A Topcoder round and Quake differ greatly enough that the random Topcoder user is sometimes the greater authority.

You seemed to map the call to critically evaluate expert opinion to a call to ignore it, something I'm sure you've seen too much of. But it's important to understand the difference between critical evaluation and anti-intellectualism. Indeed, the former is the higher form of respect.