Subject: Re: Difference between LISP and C++
From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.no>
Date: 23 Oct 2002 14:32:21 +0000
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Message-ID: <3244372341279375@naggum.no>

* Pascal Costanza <costanza@web.de>
| Things get even worse when the majority of people, including so-called
| "professionals", tell us that the stupid things are the right things to do.

  This is a completely vacuous statement.  What are you talking about?

| However, note that people can only recognize that they have done
| something stupid with hindsight.

  They can realize with hindsight that even at the time they did it, it was
  stupid.  If they rebel against this realization by trying to make it not
  stupid at the time, such as by defending themselves, they make matters
  much worse since even this is stupid at the time, to be realized later.

  You seem to make an assumption that people do not do stupid things.  This
  is not so.  The problem is that people do not /think/, and therefore do
  stupid things because they do not pay attention at the time.  To /think/
  is a choice, perhaps the only choice.  Not to think is /really/ stupid,
  but some people respond only with emotions when this is pointed out.

-- 
Erik Naggum, Oslo, Norway

Act from reason, and failure makes you rethink and study harder.
Act from faith, and failure makes you blame someone and push harder.