February 7, 2013

The Muses: "An arrest of attention in the midst of distraction."

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"Today most people don't believe in the Muses any more. Not in the sense that the ancients did.

The three -- the goddesses of literature, science and the arts --€” were at one time supposed to command men to speak. They have largely been replaced by the single all purpose modern deity: the Job. In modern political orthodoxy we do things for one rational reason only, which is to get paid. We write when the Boss tells us to. We craft a speech of talking points that the committee has approved. But of the muses we heard no more. Until recently. If any spiritual debt is owed to the informational technology revolution it has been in the resurrection of the Muses. For no one familiar with the programming world will believe for a minute that its best developers. For no one familiar with the programming world will believe for a minute that its best developers write code to be paid." -- Richard Fernandez / The House that Roger Built

Posted by gerardvanderleun at February 7, 2013 1:36 PM
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"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments are moderated and may not appear immediately. Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged.

Amen to that!

Posted by: pdwalker at February 7, 2013 4:27 PM

The closing line in the excerpt was clipped and really needs to be completed to be understandable: "For no one familiar with the programming world will believe for a minute that its best developers write code to be paid."

Interesting article. Thanks for bringing attention to it.

Posted by: bob r at February 7, 2013 5:25 PM

Good suggestion. Done.

Posted by: vanderleun at February 7, 2013 5:51 PM