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| tggzzz:
--- Quote from: coppice on October 24, 2023, 12:43:27 pm --- --- Quote from: tggzzz on October 24, 2023, 12:49:27 am ---Petronius Arbiter's famous quote applies to new products as well as new org-charts, viz: "I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing, and what a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while actually producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization." In my case I spent a large chunk of my career on the bleeding edge of technology in a well-known industrial research lab. That required keeping on top of all the new products and technologies, so that I/we could advance them. 99% of them weren't an advance. At best they were different (but not better), and nowhere near as good or revolutionary as their proponents claimed. Recognising which were "froth" and which were "liquid" meant I didn't go down the blind alleys (now mercifully forgotten) that seduced many people. Summary: most claimed advances aren't an advance. --- End quote --- The main reason "advances" are advances is "we control this one, and we don't control all the alternatives already out there performing well". --- End quote --- That is indeed one reason; the "conspiracy theory of history" is sometimes right. Alternative reasons are "we are young and/or ignorant so we have triumphantly reinvented the wheel", "we think you are ignorant and easily lead up the garden path until after you have given us money". The former is the "cockup theory of history", the latter is another "conspiracy theory of history". When younger (and still in my weak moments) I prefer the conspiracy theory. But usually the cockup theory is sufficient :( Depressing isn't it. |
| coppice:
--- Quote from: tggzzz on October 24, 2023, 01:15:31 pm ---That is indeed one reason; the "conspiracy theory of history" is sometimes right. Alternative reasons are "we are young and/or ignorant so we have triumphantly reinvented the wheel", "we think you are ignorant and easily lead up the garden path until after you have given us money". The former is the "cockup theory of history", the latter is another "conspiracy theory of history". When younger (and still in my weak moments) I prefer the conspiracy theory. But usually the cockup theory is sufficient :( Depressing isn't it. --- End quote --- I'm always amused when the young and stupid tell me a product, which clearly did exist, could not have existed because they have no clue how it might have worked. An example would be weapons which performed Fourier transforms optically before a DSP type of FFT processor was feasible. |
| tggzzz:
--- Quote from: coppice on October 24, 2023, 01:20:20 pm --- --- Quote from: tggzzz on October 24, 2023, 01:15:31 pm ---That is indeed one reason; the "conspiracy theory of history" is sometimes right. Alternative reasons are "we are young and/or ignorant so we have triumphantly reinvented the wheel", "we think you are ignorant and easily lead up the garden path until after you have given us money". The former is the "cockup theory of history", the latter is another "conspiracy theory of history". When younger (and still in my weak moments) I prefer the conspiracy theory. But usually the cockup theory is sufficient :( Depressing isn't it. --- End quote --- I'm always amused when the young and stupid tell me a product, which clearly did exist, could not have existed because they have no clue how it might have worked. An example would be weapons which performed Fourier transforms optically before a DSP type of FFT processor was feasible. --- End quote --- Yeah :( Black is white and no that very dark thing isn't really black. There's one of those conversations going on ATM about what isn't digital logic. If you don't already know which thread that is, don't go looking for it! |
| TimFox:
I remember when the Cooley-Tukey algorithm for rapidly computing the Discrete Fourier Transform was a new thing, and just going into practical uses. At the time, image processing laboratories always had an optical bench to generate a Fourier Transform image by optical diffraction from a laser source. Years later, the young people at work thought Fourier was spelled with a double-F. |
| coppice:
--- Quote from: TimFox on October 24, 2023, 02:04:05 pm ---I remember when the Cooley-Tukey algorithm for rapidly computing the Discrete Fourier Transform was a new thing. --- End quote --- You were around when Gauss was alive? |
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