there are several dark arts within the domain of computational magic, two of them being optimization & infosec; these tend to inspire in uninitiates feelings of awe & apprehension, motivating a cargo cult approach, wherein one values praying at their altar over effectiveness.
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RT @ollyrobot
The problem with pushing a patch that optimizes something is everyone decides they know how to do optimization and starts saying stuff like "this …
twitter.com/ollyrobot/status/1

you might here these well-meaning rubes say things like "that approach is insecure" or "garbage collection is inefficient", which they've heard their elders say but can't really explain if challenged. they know they should be doing something, but don't know how to figure it out.

its necessary to deprive those laboring under such delusions of their facade of understanding thru confrontation; learning only begins once the ritual phrase is uttered: "I don't know". many seek to avoid admitting such, but unlike the overculture, in engineering this is anathema

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of course, this reluctance to be honest is not their own fault so much as that of mainstream society's approach to epistemics, where a perceived lack of knowledge tends to be exploited as a weakness. correcting this is crucial for any wannabe engineer.

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RT @pee_zombie
imo this advice is useful not so much because programmers intuition is wrong, but rather because they don't bother to think on the meta level; ie, "is the time invest…
twitter.com/pee_zombie/status/

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