The biggest issue with idolizing people this much in my opinion is that it puts a huge divide between you and that idol.
People have heroes, and heroes do things normal humans can't. That further translates into other parts of life where really terrible things are done by villains and the only ones being able to counter it are those heroes we created.
I don't understand why people fetishize names that much. It's almost as if they are subconsciously saying:
"Given that xyz is so much better than I and he's a genius, I can therefore never hope to reach that goal, so there's no point in trying"
While at the same time consciously saying: "I wish I could be like him"
As the germans say: "Keine Bange, der kocht auch nur mit Wasser"
There's a whole bunch of inventions we accredit to different people than actually did them and we praise them like gods. And there is no rational behind that behavior. Yes, it's still a great achievement, but no it doesn't matter as much as we like to pretend.
On a step further we get to the discussion of what success is. Is success when everyone knows you? Is it when you have a lot of money? If it's all about the money, no european startup will ever be as great as its american counterpart. There's just not as much money.
> The biggest issue with idolizing people this much in my opinion is that it puts a huge divide between you and that idol.
If it's any help, I'd be happy to give a huge list of bugs I've caused due to inexperience and incompetence.
I'm not going to pretend I don't enjoy the micro-celebrity status SO has given me, but I'd be happy to help correct any impression that there's a huge gulf between me and any "regular" programmer. Maybe a gulf in "time spent answering questions on SO" but not some massive intellectual divide.
Honestly, I was expecting a list of projects that you delivered with great code quality, tools you built to improve programming, and so on. I have that for Margaret Hamilton, from Apollo to 001. Bernstein of Qmail and Rod Chapman of Praxis Correct-by-Construction come to mind. Answering lots of questions about programming indicates something about knowledge but that depends on the questions & answers. I know lots of programmers value people doing hands-on parts.
So, all in all, I guess I'm wondering what writings or work you did that puts you on list of top programmers. I mean, is it just how many aspiring or professional programmers you've helped day to day? The amplification effect of your SO activities on our field? Or specific, jaw-dropping software or books I don't know about? Or both?
That's honest. Appreciate the feedback. In case you missed the other comment, I do think we should have recognition of contribution to educating programmers in practical ways. I think your StackOverflow work and book should earn you some place high on that list. :)
>> I don't understand why people fetishize names that much.
I think it's basically the same phenomena as "judging a book by its cover" and "can't overcome a bad first impression".
Our brains are constantly putting things in "bins" and these bins cost energy to move around. Looking at it from a minimization of energy perspective, it's basically because minds are lazy and need a way to quickly make decisions without arriving at everything from first principals.
The extent to which this is true or not (I think) has to do with levels of intelligence. Higher intelligence (or, related, neuroplasticity) allows someone to alter the structure of their brain at a lower energy cost.
Personally, I think this is why cognitive dissonance is often accompanied by anger because the brain literally just realized how much work it would be to rewire a mental model to account for such dissonance and would prefer a way to avoid it, hence fight or flight.
> As the germans say: "Keine Bange, der kocht auch nur mit Wasser"
Meaning? My high school German and a bit of Google translate give me "Don't worry, he also cooks with water" or something similar? Can anyone (native German speaker would be good) clarify further, please.
Not a native German speaker (One side of my family is German so I have assimilated some of the culture, but I know only small amounts of german), but I would hazard a guess that an expanded form of it is
Don't worry, [no matter how great they are,] they also cook with water
meaning something along the lines of "No matter how great they are, they are still human in the end".
People fetishize names because they fetishize knowledge as a form of social status, and being able to say "I know who Jon Skeet is and will talk about him, and if you don't, then I'm better than you." But of course, you have to roll some humility into it by talking about people who are also presumably better than you.
>People fetishize names because they fetishize knowledge as a form of social status, and being able to say "I know who Jon Skeet is and will talk about him, and if you don't, then I'm better than you."
What you describe is name dropping, while what the parent described is hero worship / idolizing.
The two have very little to do with each other.
In fact it's the inverse: people not only don't idolize names to be smug over people not knowing them, but actually tend to idolize those that most other people already know (the "stars") that they've seen in the media.
People do like to hero worship. I think it's a psychological thing.
Although I disagree with saying that you can never reach a level of somebody that's you idolise. What I observe with myself and others is that people emulate those they idolise and emulating people who are really good at something would help you improve.
People have heroes, and heroes do things normal humans can't. That further translates into other parts of life where really terrible things are done by villains and the only ones being able to counter it are those heroes we created.
I don't understand why people fetishize names that much. It's almost as if they are subconsciously saying:
"Given that xyz is so much better than I and he's a genius, I can therefore never hope to reach that goal, so there's no point in trying"
While at the same time consciously saying: "I wish I could be like him"
As the germans say: "Keine Bange, der kocht auch nur mit Wasser"
There's a whole bunch of inventions we accredit to different people than actually did them and we praise them like gods. And there is no rational behind that behavior. Yes, it's still a great achievement, but no it doesn't matter as much as we like to pretend.
On a step further we get to the discussion of what success is. Is success when everyone knows you? Is it when you have a lot of money? If it's all about the money, no european startup will ever be as great as its american counterpart. There's just not as much money.