Well played :D. I was just wondering if anyone would get my weird sense of humor.
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I prefer “high-functioning programmer”.
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Recovering programmer?
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This is totally a sidebar.
I was having lunch with a phd co-worker/friend the other day, and because we are friends we can have conversations like this:
Me: you keep using the phrase ‘feature vector’. What does that mean?
Him: an ordered list of values.
Me: so, an array?
Him: yeah, but they go a specific direction.
Me: so, an array?
Him: yeah, but you can compare N amount of vectors to see their distance and overlap.
Me: so, an array?
He finally copped to using feature vector cause it sounded cool :D. Kids these days.
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I’m not classically trained in programming or maths. In fact my math skills are terrible. I’m not proud of it but it’s a limitation I’m painfully aware off and I’ve managed to adapt and be a skilled programmer. Maybe that’s why functional programming is so hard for me to wrap my head around.
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The long dark night of the Lambda Calculus.
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Are you my twin?
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It seems weird to scold people for not doing proper research and then not actually provide any evidence for your claim. FYI, I just did a bunch of googling and reading articles and couldn’t find anything about Moldbug having in the past used talks at programming conferences as a platform for racist or neo-reactionary views…I wonder if you are using an overly broad definition of “uses conferences as a bully pulpit to spread his views on things other than functional programming” and including conferences that weren’t meant to be about programming in the first place (which would seem like shifting the goalposts), such as this one. If not, I’d appreciate if you could share the fruits of your google-fu skills.
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What I think is the most crucial factor here is having the discipline to compartmentalize - and that applies both to prospective speakers as well as prospective attendees. It seems probable that nearly any given person is going to have some views that you find unacceptable. But to what extent are those relevant in any given situation? I am going to guess that none of these Lambda speakers are being invited to soapbox about their social views. It doesn’t seem like a conflict that I might seek their opinions about coding, while avoiding their input on urban planning, for instance.
It’s not unlike reconciling Abrahamic religion with democracy. If you deep down believe that the universe is a monarchy, should you be allowed to hold office in a representative democracy? It depends upon the ability to compartmentalize. If the personal beliefs undermine the collective effort, then they have failed to keep them distinct, and so must go. If they have the discipline to keep them separate, then I think that’s great and that people should respect them for doing so. For example, I have been criticised here for my opinions that most economics and finance are poorly thought out utopian abstractions. But do I need to believe in it to effectively have a job with financial responsibilities? Many seem to think so (which fuels my conviction that capitalism is indoctrinary, like a religion). But it seems no more necessary than the belief that chess pieces are real people is prerequisite in order to excel at the game of chess. People use many different domains of conceptuality and abstraction, and it seems naive to expect them all to neatly reconcile when they so rarely do.
I am not a Knight of the Lambda Calculus, but I play one on television.
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Yes, but is the person in question infamous because of those views? In this case, yes.
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According to this article here by a LambdaConf organizer, the reviewers didn’t know anything about this when they approved the submitted talk:
The gender- and person-anonymized talk was endorsed by the review committee, and made it all the way onto the schedule board before a volunteer brought the issue to our attention.
I recommend reading (or at least skimming) the whole article, it’s a thoughtful discussion of the issues involved, and there are some interesting quotes from an anonymous survey they sent out to attendees to get their feedback on whether to rescind the invitation.
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Here’s a fun primer, if you suddenly become interested in lambda calculus:
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If he has to preface his keynote with “I’m speaking to you via Skype because I’m in prison for murdering my wife …” then I don’t see why not. That’s a punishment in itself.
Likewise, there is no reason why he shouldn’t be employed to code while locked away, so long as any profit from his work goes to his children and their carers as compensation for depriving them of a mother. The comments in the code could be edited to proclaim his guilt for all to see.
Why the obsession with turning prison into a pit into which we throw people just as punishment? They generally have to come out of it at the end of their sentence. If we make it impossible to maintain or gain skills they just end up back in the hole, straight after they come out.
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Me: you keep using the phrase ‘feature vector’. What does that mean?
Him: an ordered list of values.
I’d have to say “An array is a data structure, not the vector object. An array can represent any vector, but it’s not a vector until you call it that.”
Me: I’m just like that.
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Sure, I believe that. That doesn’t stop them from rescinding it now though.
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cackle
Well yes, but…
if it’s functional it ain’t an object 
(I do enjoy semantic talk a lot, but I don’t get worked up about it)
https://twitter.com/klintron/status/716315942163079168
https://twitter.com/klintron/status/716316173680291840
https://twitter.com/klintron/status/716317370747228160
Klint, an acquaintance of mine, is a technology reporter for Wired and TechCrunch.
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Because if you peel back the centuries-old layers of legislative language that forms our calico state and federal legal system, you’ll find that as a culture we do not walk our secular talk. There is no redemption but through Jesus Christ, and all that is available on this earth is punishment and suffering, so that’s what we mete out.
Well that’s depressing. You’ve just showed me a layer of hypocrisy added to the clamour for retribution. Those who believe in God’s grace should surely also exemplify it …
Have you met many Christians?
