Making the case for repeat

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Sat, 06 Jun 2009 19:32:31 -0700, Tim Roberts wrote:

> Steven D'Aprano <steve at REMOVE-THIS-cybersource.com.au> wrote:
>>
>>Why is it that it's (almost) always newbies with about five minutes'
>>worth of experience with Python that come up with these grandiose plans
>>to replace entire modules with a single function?
> 
> Well, many great innovations in history have come from people who did
> not have enough experience to know that what they were doing was
> impossible...

So the old saw goes. Like most old saws, it's a load of codswallop. If 
you scratch beneath the surface, you soon discover that the people who 
supposedly "didn't know it was impossible" actually had a great deal of 
experience of what was and wasn't possible in the subject at hand. They 
might have been outsiders, but they were *knowledgeable* outsiders.

e.g. the Wright Brothers weren't lone inventors working at a time when 
everyone knew powered flight was impossible, they were experienced 
engineers and glider-pilots who paid a lot of attention to research done 
by their many competitors.



-- 
Steven