Essentially Contested Concepts
Even something as inconsequential as the way you do software development is freighted with value. You can see that from the very word “Agile”: of course my team is Agile. What’s alternative? We’re torpid?
The article is about a lot more: what parts of programming are religious, and what parts are open for debate; it's worth reading.
That article came to me via this toot which is in the response tree to this toot, and was retooted by Kartik Agaram.
I'd like to take a moment to reflect on that chain:
- somebody did a study on the value of a piece of software I've been following the development of for 10 years or more
- they wrote up the study and got it through the publication morass (presentation video)
- somebody whose work on python I've been following for 15 years posted about it
- I missed that post! But several people with long, relevant histories spent time responding thoughtfully to it
- A person whom I admire and have been following for a long time boosted the post, which let me read and respond to not only the original article, but a chain of thoughtful pieces from a handful of authors
I find this a bit overwhelming and joyful: so many real people that really exist and have dedicated their real energies to work similar to the work I do are willing to offer their work online, not only for free, but for free interaction with others.
The internet truly is not dead, but the good parts of it are mired in a morass of dreck.
How can we work to make more of these wonderful connections? To make them actually free and not sold to some awful financial interest?
How can we encourage young people to find the good stuff that exists but is hidden, and build on it with their own ideas? Can we build a space for the continuation of this conversation that is trustworthy?