I’ve always been disappointed by the lack of objectivity you find in software engineering. Some things are real obvious mistakes. I’ve worked at a place where we chose Angular 1.x over React, despite React’s clear advantages, popularity, and momentum. The company later migrated to React, but spends so much extra time creating native web components so they can more easily migrate again, if needed. They clearly felt the pain of their poor decisions and seemingly didn’t completely learn from their mistakes and now hedge their bets in fear.

A more common example is Redux. Almost no one uses it any more, yet so many jumped on the hype train. It’s incredibly obtuse, (was) overused, and difficult to use. We have the context API now and people see it as a replacement; however, you will notice it’s also far less used that Redux was. Why? We realized some prop drilling is okay and global state is rarely needed. People were wrong.

It’s disappointing to see in an environment that should be highly objective, but you see it all over.

It’s infuriating to me, but maybe I should put my energy into being infatuated by the phenomenon.

Some have said we live in a post-truth world.

But we can’t blame that alone, since it happened before said era as well. I should spend some more time studying this behavior to be honest. I know some people take feedback as personal, like their identity is being attacked, and they dig their feet, but why? In any case, I’ve observed this other places and I have some more examples.

I see this on Discord a lot. I stopped trying to participate in both engineering and IT Discord communities years ago, for the same reason. Everything becomes an argument and people insist on spreading false information. It’s almost like they would rather die than admit they are wrong. It doesn’t matter how much evidence you provide, they will emit death screeches.

Most recently I wanted to get involved in photography communities, because I am going to pick up the hobby again and oh boy… Here’s the first example:

  • Me: Image stabilization is less complicated with mirrorless cameras.
  • Supposed camera tech: No it’s not.
  • Me: Yes it is, it’s literally in the Sony camera wiki. They have to overcome unique challenges. Here’s a link.
  • Supposed camera tech: I’m not reading that. Wikipedia cannot be trusted, it’s nonsense.

But it is much easier to take a digital image and send it to multiple sources as opposed to using mirrors to split light and since what you see in the viewfinder is a split of the light source and only the sensor is stabilized. This means what you see in the viewfinder of a DSLR would differ than what the camera “sees”, so how do you handle it? With more a more complicated solution than just displaying the digital image you already working with.

He refused to read the explanation by people much more knowledgeable than him. Flat out refused. And I’m not even talking about myself, but people who truly understand the subject matter that is peer reviewed. I hate it.

And another:

  • Me: I tried this heat sink / fan for my camera and it no longer overheats when taking video (a common issue with Sony cameras).
  • Some retard: You know everyone just changes the settings to allow high temperatures right?
  • Me: Yes, but it’s pretty cool and a good alternative to putting your electronics at risk. Heat overtime reduces the lifespan of electronics.
  • Some retard: No it doesn’t.
  • Me: Here are some sources, do a quick Google search and you will find plenty of more information.
  • Some retard: No it doesn’t. I’ll just keep making money with my camera.
  • Another retard: Me too. I won’t worry about it and just keep making money.

What? What does any of this have to do with making money? Why do they refuse to read or admit the truth? And it wasn’t just them. Multiple people came in screeching. They learned to use the high heat setting on their camera and think it’s the only way to do it? How is that even part of their identity? And since when is new information so offensive?

I tested it myself, 2 hours on the regular settings and zero overheating, which is awesome. 2 hours is when many Sony cameras will shut down even on the mode that allows for them to get extremely hot. This means it’s very much possible that you can shoot for a whole day with zero risk or inconvenience. Yet, they hate the idea?! Okay, you do you, I’m out.

It’s maddening and arrogant. They literally think because they make money from photography that their opinion trumps facts. I admit, I haven’t made money from photography, but I have used it as things like a wedding present. Free photography is a pretty cool present in my opinion and far more noble. I easily could have charged, so what’s their point? Oh, that they are the experts and I threatened their reality and later their reputation, so they screech.

The current information climate is strange.