"Why I Hate Advocacy"

, Will Kahn-Greene | share this (mastodon)
Note: This is an old post in a blog with a lot of posts over a long span of time. The world has changed, technologies have changed, and I've changed. It's likely this is out of date, the code doesn't work, the ideas haven't aged well, or the ideas were terrible to begin with. Let me know if you think this is something that needs updating.

I discovered Why I hate Advocacy from jgoerzen

I encounter this regularly when talking about operating systems, programming languages, text editors, and even non-technical things like car manufacturers, methods for making coffee, types of beer, music, politics, .... I never connected it with a "want to be part of the tribe" behavior. I wonder if this behavior is something that's relatively recent or dates back to primitive man. Regardless, it makes it difficult to discuss things in a rational, objective manner to understand what's really going on and the nuances involved.

Also on jgoerzen's blog entry is a link to Why smart people defend bad ideas. Reading the two essays back to back was really funky.

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