Computing On The Edge - 202334

The Price of Being Original

Our present does not forgive being original. This is true in general when it comes to broad beliefs, and almost true when it comes to technology.

You get mostly frustrated by making less-than-common choices, even if they make perfect sense in the relevant context.

'Network Effect' they call it: it's actually the expression of some coherent form of oligarchy, which is something as old as the world, but with a twisted pair attached.

Oligarchies produce a way of thinking that cannot be surpassed without taking the blame.

Oligarchic thinking dismisses most original thoughts and kills free expression along the way, until something really valuable comes along, and the all castle comes tumbling down.

Kuhn's revolutions make their way into trivial aspects of our computing lives: mouse pointers, or smartphones, or weird computers with no keyboard attached made their way into our houses.

Unless, the new winner needs more scrutiny: it's the most likely to become the next tyrant: search engines, AIs, port adapters or whatever, are always a byproduct of human activity and of the social structures.

Talk is cheap, code relatively not. And with that I mean cheaper than hardware, but still: you need to get there first.

If you can choose, use technology that liberate, rather than reinforce positions of power.

Not always, but most of the time you do have a choice.

Also, in the end, in spite of the struggle, some original solution will end up triumphing over the rest.

Reading Tips for the week

The Way To Go

Common pitfalls in Go benchmarking

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