There are people that are simply better at this stuff than I am, I'm not going to belittle my own work by paying homage to theirs. That does not mean that I can't improve relative to where I am today though, and I strive very hard to do so. Maybe one day I will be that good.
It's the difference between arrogance and objectivity.
I'm more than happy creating the stuff I do, every now and then I come up with something that is new (at least, new to me, see http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1353259), but that does not mean that I'm going to see this as anything other than the stroke of genius that it was.
If it really was that easy we could all improve on every major algorithm out there just by staring at it long enough and that's exactly why BM is so neat, it wasn't just a simple incremental improvement on someone else's code.
So, I challenge you, come up with an improvement on the status quo prior to BM that does not use the principles as exposed in BM and that performs on par or better, and that are not part of the current literature.
I'll tip you $250 if you manage to do that, that should be easy money for you. And I'm good for the cash.
You will probably get a nice wikipedia entry to boot.
Why would being objective about someone elses achievements relative to your own discourage anybody? That's a motivation to try harder not to give up, after all, it shows you what is possible.
Just like hearing Jehudi Menuhin play should not cause you to burn your violin but to practice.
I'm not putting algorithms on a pedestal, I'm putting that particular example of all the algorithms available up as the one that I ran in to which taught me that I (still!) have a lot to learn.
jacquesm seems like an accomplished guy. I believe he created internet video feeds. I just bookmarked his HN comment feed along with tptacek because it's a great way to find the good technical threads on HN.
When jacquesm is in awe of some developer, I find it inspirational, to think: hey, he's a mortal, maybe I can be that good too one day.
Comments
Whoever talked about losing hope?
There are people that are simply better at this stuff than I am, I'm not going to belittle my own work by paying homage to theirs. That does not mean that I can't improve relative to where I am today though, and I strive very hard to do so. Maybe one day I will be that good.
It's the difference between arrogance and objectivity.
I'm more than happy creating the stuff I do, every now and then I come up with something that is new (at least, new to me, see http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1353259), but that does not mean that I'm going to see this as anything other than the stroke of genius that it was.
If it really was that easy we could all improve on every major algorithm out there just by staring at it long enough and that's exactly why BM is so neat, it wasn't just a simple incremental improvement on someone else's code.
So, I challenge you, come up with an improvement on the status quo prior to BM that does not use the principles as exposed in BM and that performs on par or better, and that are not part of the current literature.
I'll tip you $250 if you manage to do that, that should be easy money for you. And I'm good for the cash.
You will probably get a nice wikipedia entry to boot.
[deleted]
Why would being objective about someone elses achievements relative to your own discourage anybody? That's a motivation to try harder not to give up, after all, it shows you what is possible.
Just like hearing Jehudi Menuhin play should not cause you to burn your violin but to practice.
I'm not putting algorithms on a pedestal, I'm putting that particular example of all the algorithms available up as the one that I ran in to which taught me that I (still!) have a lot to learn.
jacquesm seems like an accomplished guy. I believe he created internet video feeds. I just bookmarked his HN comment feed along with tptacek because it's a great way to find the good technical threads on HN.
When jacquesm is in awe of some developer, I find it inspirational, to think: hey, he's a mortal, maybe I can be that good too one day.