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David Alan Hjelle 2023-04-14 15:20:57

Inspired by the podcast on Programming as Theory Building, I put together a short talk with my attempt at trying to explain and/or share my take-aways from the paper. It's for a local (Fargo, ND) developer meet-up. I tried to steer towards the practical implications as much as I could since we have a pretty diverse (in terms of interest and skill-set) audience.

Jimmy Miller 2023-04-14 15:23:41

So happy for people to be talking about this paper 🙂 Talk outline is looking great! Also happy that I've made at least someone read at least 6 pages of philosophy

David Alan Hjelle 2023-04-14 15:27:37

Thanks — it's been surprisingly worthwhile to have the concepts percolate in mind for the last few months! So — thanks for bringing my attention to the paper in the first place!

Out of curiosity, if someone said, "I only am willing to commit to reading a single, short, reasonable understandable book on philosophy." — where would you point them?

Eli Mellen 2023-04-14 15:29:48

Jimmy Miller you empowered me to trick a bunch of engineers into reading more philosophy than they realized was gonna happen in an “engineering learning club”

…but no one else was willing to organize the club or pick readings, so, they’re doomed to deal with my reading list now

Eli Mellen 2023-04-14 15:31:06

today is Elephant 2000, next I’m thinking either Learning to Troubleshoot: A New Theory-Based Design Architecture, Woei Hung or Programming is Forgetting: Toward a New Hacker Ethic, Allison Parrish

Jimmy Miller 2023-04-14 15:44:57

@David Alan Hjelle Hard to say without knowing someones background. I think one of the biggest things people need to get into philosophy is something that feels real and interesting to them. If I had to pick the absolutely most accessible text it might be "On Bullshit" by Harry Frankfurt. Super short (67 pages) and pretty good. Or a fun paper is Peter Van Inwagen's paper on Time Travel without paradox. andrewmbailey.com/pvi/Changing_the_Past.pdf

But really I think it's more about what people find interesting. Some people have religious motivations or social issues, or politics, or tech etc. Feel free to DM if you want to chat about potential books or papers on a particular topic.

Jimmy Miller 2023-04-14 15:46:31

@Eli Mellen Haven't read/watched those two. But will definitely check them out. I've done reading groups that just ended up being "Jimmy explains the reading no one read" so if people are reading you are doing a great job.

Eli Mellen 2023-04-14 15:47:32

so far folks are reading it!

What has been happening is that I end up providing like 10 mins of context that was left out of the paper and just assumed the audience would know… looking at you Naur…

Eli Mellen 2023-04-14 17:17:58

I don’t know how it happened, but the group opted for our next reading to be Out of the Tar Pit…I am now convinced someone else listens to the podcast.