I just read The Programming Elite, Programmers Who Read. Apparently Joel Spolsky claims that only 5-10% of practicing programmers "read things in order to better themselves as programmers."
I find this very depressing. I also find it completely believable. It helps to explain how people keep reinventing things and thinking that they are new. I recently went to a lecture on Great New Thing and afterwards I was complaining to a friend of mine that more than two thirds of the lecture was about ideas from structured programming, but with new names. My friend didn't disagree with me. He just asked why I keep being surprised that nobody knows any history. Apparently I've made similar complaints often enough to bore him.
I guess I just don't get it. How can someone program and not want to read everything that they can get their hands on?
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
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