I see he has a list of his most favorite esoteric and arcane tools juxtaposed irrationally with a list of somewhat more popular ones.
The real problem with this list is that he makes absolutely no attempt to rationalize any of the judgments he makes. He simply says that x is much better than y; therefore everyone should use x. Presumably there is this underlying expectation that anyone who finds this page will immediately think, "Oh, shit, he's so right, these things I have been using for many years without problems, and which I am very comfortable with, really are shitty, so I had better use all of these other programs instead." Of course no one is going to think that. Among the people who actually give a shit about whatever programs they are using (which, for any given program, is already likely to be a small fraction of those who use it), the vast majority of them like whatever they are using. Why? Because if they didn't like it, they would find something else. Naturally the ones who don't give a shit what they're using are also not going to bother switching to something else even with a good reason, so lists such as this are even more lost on these people.
I really don't care what this guy writes. I use what I like, and a lot of the stuff I use - and like - are listed in his "Harmful" column. This categorization seems entirely irrational to me, and without anything resembling justifications for his labeling, I have no reason to switch away from tools I am comfortable with, just so that I can spend large amounts of time learning new tools I am unfamiliar with. This is compounded by the fact that these alternative tools are, on the whole, unlikely to exist on whatever system I am using at the time.
Therefore, I believe that cat-v.org should be categorized under "Harmful." See what I just did? I gave my reasoning, and then I stated my opinion. You're certainly allowed to agree or disagree with me, but you'll at least know how I came to that conclusion, and heck, maybe I even convinced someone to change their opinion. And what's even better, if you feel differently, you can tell specifically what points you disagree with. It's rational discourse, which is something that tends to be completely lost on, curiously, the very sort of people who make these sorts of websites claiming that some particular thing is either terrible or fantastic.
>>13
While I do agree on some points with that cat-v list, and disagree on other points, I think the problem with your thinking lies here: I have no reason to switch away from tools I am comfortable with, just so that I can spend large amounts of time learning new tools I am unfamiliar with.
I admit this is pretty normal and human and most people, including me, tend to be lazy fucks who become complacent with something and are too lazy to switch to something better because it would take them a lot of time to learn those things, even if those things are better and might save them a lot of time in the long run. It is rather hard to know what will be useful (or not) without actually spending the time and learning that thing. There are even situations where people spend their entire lives on absolutely useless things because of false or incorrect beliefs they hold or other misconceptions. There are also (incredibly common) situations where someone finds something "good enough" and decides to stay with it, even if there are considerably better alternatives for them (both time and resource-wise).
Name:
Anonymous2010-12-01 19:26
>>13
The links in the nav bar to the left explain the rationale pretty well. He also subscribes to the paradigm that complexity is the bane of all software, simplicity is the most important quality.
>>13
He clearly has no earthly idea just what in the fuck he is talking about. Rather like a 1 year old playing in his own shit and splattering it on the screen and thinking it's useful web page.
>>15
No it most certainly does not explain his rationale. It's just a bunch of thinly disguised self-important bullshit, and he's making a poor effort to try to pass off his arrogant opinions as factual knowledge.
I have a feeling that the lack of rationale stems from the fact that his only reasons for favoring any particular piece of software is because he's an elitist fuck who can't stand using the same things as other people.
>>24
Made by hipsters for hipsters.. still use most of their stuff though.. I just threat it as one proprietary software package... imagine they are like the borg collective or something.
Never touch it but firing nanoprobes at weird looking aliens is fun.