It's pretty coincidental that I read the headlines on the front-page and noticed 4 of the top 10 articles are Why this or Why that instead of How:
* Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation (marco.org)
* Joel Spolsky on Why Lunch is So Important at Work (joelonsoftware.com)
* Why we need an Open Wireless movement (eff.org)
* Silk: why we use Haskell (typlab.com)
So I searched for "why" in my browser and found this article just down the page. Hows add to my technical skill set, whys help me make better judgments in the future. I personally prefer the "how" more than "why" because everyone can have a different reason for why. Why marco prefers not to make Instapaper free or why Fog Creek devs prefer DVCS certainly help me decide if I want to go down that part or not. But in the end, how interests the hacker in me more.
"How" is necessary, but I think "Why" is more fundamental. There is always more to know about the universe than we can stuff in our heads (I can't even tell you the contents of my desk), but "Why" provides the motivation - a framework or outline on which to hang all the details involved in "How". If the detail doesn't move me toward the goal, I ignore it.
Comments
It's pretty coincidental that I read the headlines on the front-page and noticed 4 of the top 10 articles are Why this or Why that instead of How:
* Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation (marco.org)
* Joel Spolsky on Why Lunch is So Important at Work (joelonsoftware.com)
* Why we need an Open Wireless movement (eff.org)
* Silk: why we use Haskell (typlab.com)
So I searched for "why" in my browser and found this article just down the page. Hows add to my technical skill set, whys help me make better judgments in the future. I personally prefer the "how" more than "why" because everyone can have a different reason for why. Why marco prefers not to make Instapaper free or why Fog Creek devs prefer DVCS certainly help me decide if I want to go down that part or not. But in the end, how interests the hacker in me more.
"How" is necessary, but I think "Why" is more fundamental. There is always more to know about the universe than we can stuff in our heads (I can't even tell you the contents of my desk), but "Why" provides the motivation - a framework or outline on which to hang all the details involved in "How". If the detail doesn't move me toward the goal, I ignore it.