"To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing."
Elbert Hubbard (1856 - 1915)
Keep up the good work!
I think the idea that learning C should be required is a poor one. Not that I disagree with what I think is its essence: don’t forget the fundamentals of computing.
Beyond variables or conditions, I think of the fundamentals being disk storage, memory, processing power, and device communication. There’s a strong desire to abstract some or all of this away in high-level languages, which is why I think people romanticize systems-programming languages like C. But at the end of the day, you do still need to deal with these fundamentals, even in high-level languages. Your .NET program can still leak memory, still have file-locking issues, still spike the CPU.
In my opinion, ignore all the lower level languages if you wish. I would suggest that you don’t forget you’re running programs on real computers, not in abstract black-boxes where everything works just swell. I don’t mean that pointedly to you, Jeff, because I don’t think you have forgotten, but I think it’s a necessary reminder with some modern languages.
I have to say I like the fact there is very little actual code. I have dozens of other blogs that I read for insights into the more specifics of code, but Coding Horror manages to talk more about the ecosystem around the code rather than the specifics.
Heck, even my girlfriend enjoys and gets something from half the posts here, and she doesn’t program (except for a few weeks when I tried to teach her).
How is it that people gain trust and influence as experts without ever concretely proving they are one, by programming, by starting businesses, by really doing what they are expert at?
It’s simple really. They are communication experts. Gaining popularity is all about visibility and knowing how to communicate. It has very little to do with technical prowess.
You see this happening at work all the time. Sometimes you meet a fellow, who just climbs the ladder like there is nothing stopping him. Hes not climbing because he’s an expert programmer, but because he’s an expert politician and communicator.
If you are good at communications and politics, you should be helping the ‘real experts’ to get their voice heard. If you can be the catalyst to get the great thinking and points out in a way that can be understood, then that’s what you should be doing.
I think Jeff is just doing that. And strangely enough, even many of the people we think are the experts, do very little concrete work themselves. They are just in a position to observe what people are doing and then making conclusions about the bigger picture.
Of course having opinions make other people question you.
Reading an “opinion” blog is like “inviting the vampire in your house”. It’s an invitation to think “about” the post and “comment” about it.
Reading a “code” blog… well you “steal” the code (copy/paste say thank you) and comment when the guy screwed up.
Code blogs gets lots of traffic but few comments.
Opinion blogs gets lots of traffic and a dedicated “reading/commenting” fan base (read : code monkeys with brains).
And by the way… the fun part about you Jeff is that you “share”.
Oh boy do you share say thank you.
The post started out well enough, but…
In our heart of hearts, we know: the real
progress is made by the amateurs.
I have no idea why you would think that, and your post doesn’t elaborate. In computer science, applications are made by amateurs (and note that these apps often lead to progress outside of comp sci, but seldomly “inside” of it). Progress in comp sci, however, is made by the pros, by the people who spend their lives researching this stuff.
If I’ve learned anything in my career,
it is that approaching software
development as an expert, as someone who
has already discovered everything there
is to know about a given topic, is the
one surest way to fail.
Not sure if you’re joking. Your description of a person who “has already discovered everything” has nothing to do with the definition of an expert. I studied computer science at ETHZ and had classes by Niklaus Wirth and Bertrand Meyer. I never got the impression that they thought - even remotely - that they had “already discovered everything,” yet they are clearly “programming experts” in the best, purest sense of the word.
Experts are, if anything, more suspect
than the amateurs, because they’re less
honest.
So somebody complains that it seems you don’t know that much about the topic of your blog, and your reply is that yes, you don’t know very much, but the people who do know very much are more suspect because they’re less honest, the implication being that really, it’s good to know little. Wha#8253;
I read your blog because I find it entertaining, and because I find you likable (simpatico is the proper term, I guess) even though I most often disagree with the points you’re making (it’s useful as some kind of compass, I guess - agreeing with you serves as a strong indicator that I didn’t fully think through something ;-), but I must say that I found this particular post quite hard to swallow; almost insulting, even.
Fuck Alastair, Jeff Rules!
OK, since everyone here seems to be supporting you, I think a devil’s advocate voice will be useful too. I think you’re going too far from the thing you know about. If you do a serious research and provide a “fresh view” on some topic - that’s really helpful.
But sometimes you just see something and mention it. There are 10 paragraphs in such posts, many sentences, and almost no added value. I know that I will find a lot value in the comments, and that this is why you write those posts - just to mention something and attract reactions, but really reading you talking in a childish style about some technology (if it’s a thing I know better) makes you less credible when you’re writing about stuff I don’t know (it makes me wonder - if he really knows what he’s writing or just guessing again?)
If you’ve built something, stuck on some problem - do write. But please leave some space for others, you don’t have to blog about everything that exists. I know you have to keep the pageviews high but the medium value of your posts is declining, and that’s not a good thing.
I am not jealous, not even deeply in my heart. I will keep reading your blog - it’s worth it as hell.
Jeff, well put. I always enjoy reading your blog because of the challenge-response style you use and the reflection it invokes in me. I may not always agree with your opinions but they get me to think about my own, which is the whole point.
In a way, you are sometimes similar to Gordon Ramsey. If you’ve ever watched the british version of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares you’ll know that when he comes in to a failing restaurant he never tells anyone what they’re doing right, he only tells them what they’re doing wrong. He does this for two reasons. First, because the problem isn’t what they are doing right. Second, because it usually ‘puts a rocket up their ass’, to quote the chef himself, and gets them thinking.
bows to his sensei
There’s an old saying, “People vote with their feet”, in your case, its clicks, or RSS feeds. That’s the only barometer you need.
You still suck. 
You should get Jon to make you another badge like your “Works on my machine” one, that says “I can change my mind, can you?” and put that up as a disclaimer on your blog.
Interestingly enough, I find such a simple skill is sorely lacking in this world.
Jeff, I trust that all the positive feedback from your users will reassure you that Alastair’s opinion is not shared by the majority.
Keep up the great work. Try to ignore this elitist crap…
One thing that Alastair Rankine’s Blogging Horror mentions is that Jeff does not include any code in this blog. As a big fan of this blog this used to trouble me. Then one day I noticed that my very favorite submission on codeproject.com, the one dealing with exception handling was written by Jeff. This is a module that I always include (slightly modified for my purposes) in all my winforms applications. My favorite blogger and my favorite code turned out to be from the same source. This certainly did more for my respect for Jeff then any code inline in the blog would have done.
Thanks Jeff for your blog (and for your exception handling routine)
This quote from Randy Pausch - Last Lecture:
“And the other Jim Graham story I have is there was one practice where he just rode me all practice. You’re doing this wrong, you’re doing this wrong, go back and do it again, you owe me, you’re doing push-ups after practice. And when it was all over, one of the other assistant coaches came over and said, yeah, Coach Graham rode you pretty hard, didn’t he? I said, yeah. He said, that’s a good thing. He said, when you’re screwing up and nobody’s saying anything to you anymore, that means they gave up. And that’s a lesson that stuck with me my whole life. Is that when you see yourself doing something badly and nobody’s bothering to tell you anymore, that’s a very bad place to be. Your critics are your ones telling you they still love you and care.”
Even if i am in deep disagreement with a blogger, alot of times they help me get a new view of things so i can actually learn something. We don’t need this-is-what-you-like-men we need more you’re-wrong-men.
Jeff, i might not consider you a pro, but i do have a great deal of respect for you, i hope that’s enough.
Wait a second, this is a BLOG? I thought this was a bunch of articles about self-discovery and a tender coming-of-age story about a boy and his TI-994a?
Screw that, I don’t read blogs.
http://flickr.com/photos/skoon/2538011920/?addedcomment=1#comment72157605344456490
Jeff: I am in East Africa, Arusha, Tanzania in my office corner where the internet is on and off, bandwidths are low, but hey, I always manage to read your blog and in one way or another, it helps me on my way to becoming a better programmer. I am one of those true fans, and will always be. Keep the wheels rolling. Forget about alastair. We are looking forward to stackoverflow. Cheers
It is nice to have some criticism, even if it could be construed as positive, but I’d say take the link to his site and article off. Unless you’re down with “allstar’s” flagellation. Which is the impression you’re giving by even validating his complaints.
Keep up the good work and don’t let the PC details bother you too much! 
Jeff,
I will try to quote ‘As Good as It Gets’, I know this will sound cheesy, but:
“Jeff, you make me want to be a better programmer”
Haven’t got that many geek friends who inspire me, we just hang out, play games, whatever. And currently I am doing most of the development alone, so reading your Blog is a huge inspiration. I don’t always agree, but I do respect you for everything you write. You write a terrific Blog, you put up a great service and the community(the comments) here are just fantastic.
The underlying assumption of this conversation is that there exists some measure of a minimum bar for “professionals” vs. “amateurs.” I see no such line, having met professionals in many fields who fail to produce half the quality of amateurs in the same field.
One of the best aspects of blogging is that it is helping to destroy our arbitrary reverence of professionalism by giving all of us a forum for our opinions. Content can be judged on its quality, with the identity of the author serving only to give us guidance as to its credibility.
Overall I find Jeff’s writing style to be both entertaining and thought provoking. To ask that he be right all the time is an impossible bar, even for professionals.