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It sounds like you mean to imply that iOS developers and Ruby programmers are the hipsters, no? I'm not really familiar with the battle between "hipsters" and "real nerds" in the programming world. My experience has been the opposite of yours in that the lulz crowd is usually the more inexperienced group.

There are more dimensions here than just two. The two groups you've described co-exist with many other kinds of programmers. For example, Linus Torvalds is not a mocking nerd or a hipster. I would imagine that many programmers do not identify with the two groups you've described. There are groups of 'serious' and talented programmers, lulzy talented programmers, lulzy hipster programmers, and every combination in between. Shades of gray, as they say.



> Linus Torvalds is not a mocking nerd

Really? I thought he notorious for abrasive replies telling people they're idiots for using C++, etc.


Linus cuts through the crap and no longer sugarcoats his responses. After having to deal with so many idiots day in and day out he just doesn't waste his time with it. I'd say that's different from the 'lulzy mocking nerd' that the parent commenter describes.


Well: http://quotes.cat-v.org/programming/

Choose your mockin nerd.

You can rephrase most of these sometimes 20 years old+ quotes for each technical news we have seen recently.

A lulz is just another caricature of a nerd. Mimicking a trait like a monkey is not capturing the essence of the thing.

Science is the belief in the ignorance of the expert -- Feynman



Are you sure Linus Torvalds is not a mocking nerd or a hipster? He lives in Portland and tells Nvidia to fuck off.


(shades of different colors, actually.) well put.


The divide in CS is about imagination.

Some have it, some don't.

Some see shades of gray, some sees a rainbow of colours and even the ones that are not in the visible spectrum, I'd say.


Could you elaborate on this? Seems like an interesting point.


Yes, it is about ideas not words. You can learn the word, it does not forcibly tell you about the ideas. Especially the new one.

If a software has been done, buy it! It will be almost always less expensive than building it. If it has not been done yet, no book or knowledge can tell you how to do it.

And if an idea you can code is new, you'll hardly have the word for it. It is easier to brag about «well (re)known ideas» than doing new stuff.

Colours you can't see are ideas we have not yet the word to describe them to those who can't see them.




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