meta data for this page
  •  

Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

Link to this comparison view

Both sides previous revisionPrevious revision
Next revision		Previous revision
Next revisionBoth sides next revision
nothingburger [2020/05/24 12:20] – external edit 127.0.0.1nothingburger [2020/05/25 17:07] – revusky
Line 23: Line 23:
 ===== Return to Planet of the Apes? ===== ===== Return to Planet of the Apes? =====
  
-It occurred to me recently that there is a science fiction genre that characterizes quite well this nothingburger state of affairs. In a post-apocalyptic, post-industrial future world, human society has mostly devolved to its pre-technological state. However, the landscape is still littered with vestiges of the long-gone industrial civilization. Now, a few old machines are in reasonable state and still work. However, no current-day humans //understand// how they work, much less possess the ability to build such machines. While human society has lost the all that knowledge, a few people have figured out how to tinker with a few of these machines and keep them working. Somewhat... What happens now is that these people form a kind of priesthood that wraps their minimal knowledge in a kind of religious mumbo-jumbo. (One unmistakable symptom of //nothingburgerism// is an obsession with formalisms, doing everything according to the //proper procedure//. This could almost be likened to religious rituals.)+It occurred to me recently that there is a science fiction genre that characterizes quite well this nothingburger state of affairs. In a post-apocalyptic, post-industrial future world, human society has mostly devolved to its pre-technological state. However, the landscape is still littered with vestiges of the long-gone industrial civilization. Now, a few old machines are in reasonable state and still work. However, no current-day humans //understand// how they work, much less possess the ability to build such machines. While human society has lost all that knowledge, a few people have figured out how to tinker with a few of these machines and keep them working. Somewhat... What happens now is that these people form a kind of priesthood that wraps their minimal knowledge in a kind of religious mumbo-jumbo. (One unmistakable symptom of //nothingburgerism// is an obsession with formalisms, doing everything according to the //proper procedure//. This could almost be likened to religious rituals.)
  
 Now, in this scenario, suppose somebody shows up (from the past somehow?) who really has the technical know-how to take these machines apart, fix whatever problem, and put them back together. How is this priesthood going to react? I think it is obvious. They'll express shock that the person is not going about things in the proper manner, following the rituals established by the priesthood. The bottom line is that they are going to obstruct this person's attempt to do anything because it is a challenge to their legitimacy. Finally, one cannot help but notice an eerie similarity with the state of affairs in these nothingburger software projects. The most common pattern by which an open source project becomes a //nothingburger// is that the original author loses interest, drifts away, and none of the people remaining, now the ostensible maintainers, really understand how the code works. So, if people lack the wherewithal to do fundamental work on the core code, then what do they do to justify their continued desired status? It is not hard to see how the //nothingburger// culture or mentality takes form. Now, in this scenario, suppose somebody shows up (from the past somehow?) who really has the technical know-how to take these machines apart, fix whatever problem, and put them back together. How is this priesthood going to react? I think it is obvious. They'll express shock that the person is not going about things in the proper manner, following the rituals established by the priesthood. The bottom line is that they are going to obstruct this person's attempt to do anything because it is a challenge to their legitimacy. Finally, one cannot help but notice an eerie similarity with the state of affairs in these nothingburger software projects. The most common pattern by which an open source project becomes a //nothingburger// is that the original author loses interest, drifts away, and none of the people remaining, now the ostensible maintainers, really understand how the code works. So, if people lack the wherewithal to do fundamental work on the core code, then what do they do to justify their continued desired status? It is not hard to see how the //nothingburger// culture or mentality takes form.
Line 34: Line 34:
   - When very minor changes to the code are made, patches that, by the principles of [[https://semver.org|Semantic Versioning]], would only justify a minor point-point release, like 0.7.1 to 0.7.2, they are represented as significant new development. One corollary of this (though this symptom may or may not be present) is that a nothingburger project frequently sports an excessively high version number.   - When very minor changes to the code are made, patches that, by the principles of [[https://semver.org|Semantic Versioning]], would only justify a minor point-point release, like 0.7.1 to 0.7.2, they are represented as significant new development. One corollary of this (though this symptom may or may not be present) is that a nothingburger project frequently sports an excessively high version number.
  
-One could surely list other important symptoms of //nothing-burger-ism//, but they kind of blend in and interact with one another. I think the above points I outline, the first three in particular, are key. Perhaps the first point, this kind of bizarre reverence for the existing codebase is the most reliable sign that a project has devolved into //nothingburgerism//jj. It is also the characteristic that I myself find the most unsettling, maybe even downright spooky.+One could surely list other important symptoms of //nothing-burger-ism//, but they kind of blend in and interact with one another. I think the above points I outline, the first three in particular, are key. Perhaps the first point, this kind of bizarre reverence for the existing codebase is the most reliable sign that a project has devolved into //nothingburgerism//. It is also the characteristic that I myself find the most unsettling, maybe even downright spooky.
  
 At this point, let me be clear about one thing: I do not mean to say that one should not have a certain amount of structure and organization in how one goes about things. Rather, I am talking about a situation where this is all taken to such lengths that it creates a quite mentally oppressive environment. Come to think of it, I am sure that, on occasion, this is a factor in the original author(s) losing interest and abandoning the project! Many things in this life are a question of balance, after all. Yes, a reasonable level of hygiene is a good idea, but what we are talking about here is something more akin to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsessive–compulsive_disorder|obsessive-compulsive disorder]]. People who suffer from OCD may wash their hands hundreds of times a day. They wash their hands and, a minute later, are obssessed with the idea that their hands are dirty, and feel compelled to wash their (quite clean) hands yet again. OCD, by the way, is a genuine mental illness and no laughing matter. By the same token, //nothingburgerism// is a psychosocial malaise, and also no joke. (Even if I do crack a few jokes when describing the situation...) At this point, let me be clear about one thing: I do not mean to say that one should not have a certain amount of structure and organization in how one goes about things. Rather, I am talking about a situation where this is all taken to such lengths that it creates a quite mentally oppressive environment. Come to think of it, I am sure that, on occasion, this is a factor in the original author(s) losing interest and abandoning the project! Many things in this life are a question of balance, after all. Yes, a reasonable level of hygiene is a good idea, but what we are talking about here is something more akin to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsessive–compulsive_disorder|obsessive-compulsive disorder]]. People who suffer from OCD may wash their hands hundreds of times a day. They wash their hands and, a minute later, are obssessed with the idea that their hands are dirty, and feel compelled to wash their (quite clean) hands yet again. OCD, by the way, is a genuine mental illness and no laughing matter. By the same token, //nothingburgerism// is a psychosocial malaise, and also no joke. (Even if I do crack a few jokes when describing the situation...)
Line 45: Line 45:
  
 As for my final point above, that the extreme overvaluation of minor patches will lead to the nothingburger project having an absurdly high version number, this is a frequent symptom, but not really a //sine qua non// either. However, we do observe it in the legacy JavaCC project, which is apparently gearing up for an 8.0 release. The fact of the matter is that, in its 17 years of open source history, that project has not had a level of forward evolution that would correspond to a single point release (0.8 to 0.9 say) by the approximate rules of Semantic Versioning outlined [[https://semver.org/|here]]. As for my final point above, that the extreme overvaluation of minor patches will lead to the nothingburger project having an absurdly high version number, this is a frequent symptom, but not really a //sine qua non// either. However, we do observe it in the legacy JavaCC project, which is apparently gearing up for an 8.0 release. The fact of the matter is that, in its 17 years of open source history, that project has not had a level of forward evolution that would correspond to a single point release (0.8 to 0.9 say) by the approximate rules of Semantic Versioning outlined [[https://semver.org/|here]].
 +
 +===== Think of an Army with no Soldiers =====
  
 I have no doubt that there are certain people who will jump at any opportunity to twist and misrepresent what I am saying here, so I feel I have to be very very clear about certain things. By no means am I saying here that the //only// thing anybody can do of any value in a software project is write code. In fact, it is frequently the case that the most value that can be added at a given point is by doing things other than coding. For example, most (pretty much all) open source projects are sorely in need of better documentation than what they have. I have no doubt that there are certain people who will jump at any opportunity to twist and misrepresent what I am saying here, so I feel I have to be very very clear about certain things. By no means am I saying here that the //only// thing anybody can do of any value in a software project is write code. In fact, it is frequently the case that the most value that can be added at a given point is by doing things other than coding. For example, most (pretty much all) open source projects are sorely in need of better documentation than what they have.