OT: Crazy Programming

[Alex Martelli]

Chris wrote:
        ...
> While I enjoy Python - and I do... it opned up the world of OO
> programming for me - I think there's almost a danger in things being too
> obvious.  Creativity can be a messy business, but ultimately it leads to
> better places.

The Python culture, by not particularly valuing "creativity" at the
lowest levels of programming, just frees up creative juices for use
where you get the best returns on them -- overall system architecture,
algorithms, sophisticated data structures.

Imagine two painters.  One spends half his time at arts supplies stores,
checking out the tiniest differences between different models of
brushes, different brands of paint, canvases prepared with minutely
distinct processes yielding minute roughness and absorption differences,
and so on.  The other painter has settled on good, reliable lines of
brushes, paint and canvases, had put these minutiae basically out of
her mind, and spends her time and energy actually painting, working
out different lighting and composition techniques, and so on.

Who's the really creative painter here, and who's the one at risk
of gadgetomania?  Many areas of human endeavour present similar
choices.  Like most computer geeks, I'm seriously at risk of "WOW,
bright new toys!" syndrome -- the tiny differences in brushes,
paints &c, absolutely fascinate me and hold me spell-bound.  I'm
thus well served by a culture that de-emphasizes this in favour
of higher-level, architectural deployment of my creativity.


Alex