"tech brain is a sort of constant willful reductionism: an addiction to easy answers combined with a wholesale cultural resistance to any kind of complexity."
(https://pycnocline.substack.com/p/tech-brain)
posted on August 10, 2020 06:07 PM by
u/ProfColdheart
118
u/Epistaxis99 pointsat 1597088238.000000
Imagine you’re an expert in only one thing and it’s computer
programming. Books are a waste of time except as quick references; you
can achieve full expertise just by teaching yourself through internet
searches, discussion forums, and maybe the occasional blog post if
you’re really keen. When you have to solve a problem, you strip away as
much of the context as possible, until you can isolate it down to a
single phrase of logic. As soon as you solve that one isolated
microproblem, the results blow up exponentially to satisfy all kinds of
needs and desires you haven’t even thought of.
Now imagine that even though you’re doing journeyman skilled labor
like a plumber or electrician (except it doesn’t even require
professional certification), you earn a salary well into the six figures
- or even equity that grows to the millions or billions - in a Wall
Street-like testosterone bubble where you and your colleagues
unabashedly believe you’re the smartest people in the room, the
beneficiaries of a pure meritocracy, and you’re Changing The World as
much as you can when unimpeded by the hordes of fuzzies who just don’t
know how to think.
Of course you come to believe that anyone who claims to be a
credentialed expert, and says this or that issue is actually much more
complicated and contextual than you appreciate, is probably just a big
faker whose whole field of study could be solved elegantly if a smart
person like you just spent some hobby time stripping away the context to
isolate that one neat trick of logic.
If I have learned one thing, is never to confuse knowledge with intelligence.
I could come across the “smartest person” inside their insular field or ivory tower and ask them about something else and they fall apart.
i think another part of it is that being a programmer *requires* an extreme level of credulity. computers are too small and fast to actually see them work, and their operating principles are unintuitive. so to learn to program, you have to be willing to take a whole bunch of bullshit on faith.
there's a dead computer forum i read sometimes. a while back i saw a post that i still think about:
> Nomnom Cookie posted:
>
> the only reason I'm dismissive of Unix philosophy is that in two decades of paying attention to computers I've never encountered an argument for it that isn't either essentially aesthetic or entirely a priori
>
> yes that does mean I ignore almost everything relating to computers. saves a lot of time
like damn.
the aristotlean rationalist epistemology makes more sense from this point of view. all the knowledge a programmer receives comes in the form of blustering blog posts giving unsubstantiated advice -- and following that advice *works*, it'll get you a six figure job. naturally they'd be vulnerable to grifters hawking the same approach, but for life in general.
> When you have to solve a problem, you strip away as much of the context as possible, until you can isolate it down to a single phrase of logic.
Excuse me, that's a skill you have to hone very carefully and extensively. It's called high-decoupling. You wouldn't understand.
Yup, Silicon Valley is full of grifters, and they’ve realized the
difference between that and an engineer. Good for them, and I hope their
strategy of disconnecting from the bullshit works out.
There’s a lot of good descriptive phrases in here. “Empty hero
worship”, “mind-numbing, self-aggrandizing culture”, “meaningless words
disguised as insight by a short, catchy sentence structure”, “constant
willful reductionism”, etc. A general theme of lying and embracing the
lies.
I see no difference between right-wing chuds who adopt poorly
conceived conspiracy theories because they prefer simple narratives to
complex reality, and silicon valley nerds who ignore complex social
realities because they prefer the simple, gamified feedback of
technology.
To a certain extent this reminds me of complaints I’ve heard about
engineers, generally. It would be interesting to try to pinpoint any
shared characteristics that result in the shared patterns observed.
I am not clever enough to do so and I’m not even sure there are that
many shared patterns, but it would certainly be interesting to read.
Also while I like the essay I really do hate it when people use all
lowercase letters.
Imagine you’re an expert in only one thing and it’s computer programming. Books are a waste of time except as quick references; you can achieve full expertise just by teaching yourself through internet searches, discussion forums, and maybe the occasional blog post if you’re really keen. When you have to solve a problem, you strip away as much of the context as possible, until you can isolate it down to a single phrase of logic. As soon as you solve that one isolated microproblem, the results blow up exponentially to satisfy all kinds of needs and desires you haven’t even thought of.
Now imagine that even though you’re doing journeyman skilled labor like a plumber or electrician (except it doesn’t even require professional certification), you earn a salary well into the six figures - or even equity that grows to the millions or billions - in a Wall Street-like testosterone bubble where you and your colleagues unabashedly believe you’re the smartest people in the room, the beneficiaries of a pure meritocracy, and you’re Changing The World as much as you can when unimpeded by the hordes of fuzzies who just don’t know how to think.
Of course you come to believe that anyone who claims to be a credentialed expert, and says this or that issue is actually much more complicated and contextual than you appreciate, is probably just a big faker whose whole field of study could be solved elegantly if a smart person like you just spent some hobby time stripping away the context to isolate that one neat trick of logic.
Yup, Silicon Valley is full of grifters, and they’ve realized the difference between that and an engineer. Good for them, and I hope their strategy of disconnecting from the bullshit works out.
There’s a lot of good descriptive phrases in here. “Empty hero worship”, “mind-numbing, self-aggrandizing culture”, “meaningless words disguised as insight by a short, catchy sentence structure”, “constant willful reductionism”, etc. A general theme of lying and embracing the lies.
I see no difference between right-wing chuds who adopt poorly conceived conspiracy theories because they prefer simple narratives to complex reality, and silicon valley nerds who ignore complex social realities because they prefer the simple, gamified feedback of technology.
came for the sneer, stayed for the inspiring final paragraph
To a certain extent this reminds me of complaints I’ve heard about engineers, generally. It would be interesting to try to pinpoint any shared characteristics that result in the shared patterns observed.
I am not clever enough to do so and I’m not even sure there are that many shared patterns, but it would certainly be interesting to read.
Also while I like the essay I really do hate it when people use all lowercase letters.