Walter did yo realy go Ohhhh?

[Bill Baxter]

Georg Wrede wrote:
> PatrickD wrote:
>> http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/06/rhinos-and-tigers.html
> 
> I've read a number of his previous rants, and I've generally found them 
> interesting, informative, and thought provoking. Sometimes even 
> entertaining. This one was an exception.
> 
>> <Steve Yegge> He told me the other day, [talking about] one of my
>> blog rants, that he didn't agree with the point that I'd made that
>> virtual machines are "obvious". You know? I mean, of course you use a
>> virtual machine!
>>
>> But he's a compiler dude, and he says they're a sham, they're a
>> farce, "I don't get it!" And so I explained it [my viewpoint] to him,
>> and he went: Ohhhhhhh. </Steve Yegge>
> 
> The above story, and the fact that he goes on ranting irrespective of 
> the slide sequence, the fact that he blatantly generalizes, derides, 
> self-promotes, the fact that the transcript includes the superfluous 
> interjections from spoken language, that he cavalierly exaggerates, and 
> some other details -- collectively lead me to think he's, ehhh, in an 
> "accelerated state of mind".

My guess is he's more accustomed to writing blogs than presenting them 
as talks.  So he was probably just a little hyped up on stage fright.  I 
think he makes some very good points in that talk, and they mostly make 
sense if you start with the premise that all software can and should be 
delivered over the web.  He's working for Google, and before that at 
Amazon, so it's not surprising that his world view is skewed in that 
web-centric direction.

So I think he's just forgetting (or deliberately ignoring) the fact that 
someone still has to write that VM and the operating system it runs on, 
and those better run as fast as possible or no one will care how 
wonderfully "dynamic" it is.

--bb