Author: Andrew Williams
Date: 09:06:50 11/01/99
Go up one level in this thread
On November 01, 1999 at 01:17:53, Christophe Theron wrote: >On October 31, 1999 at 18:57:52, Heiko Mikala wrote: > >>Hi Christophe! >> >>On October 31, 1999 at 18:10:33, Christophe Theron wrote: >> >>>On October 31, 1999 at 04:04:41, Peter McKenzie wrote: >>> >>>>To be honest I find the tone of your post somewhat distasteful. >>> >>> >>>Really Peter? >> >>Christophe, I felt the same when I read your headline and your post. >> >>I think you have a big sympathy bonus at the moment, being the underdog that >>beats each and every one of the "big ones". I can fully understand your >>enthusiasm. Nevertheless I think that your post and especially the big headline >>were very rude. > > >Rudeness is something that seems forbidden to some (me for example) but very >well tolerated when it comes from some others (Bob mainly). > >I don't see exactly why I should refrain to express my feelings when Bob feels >free to attack "commercial" programmers each time he has the opportunity, or to >send insults to anybody he doesn't like. > >I don't care about my sympathy bonus in fact. It's simply my pleasure today to >say that this guy has an average program and that I will not show more respect >to him than he shows for me as a "commercial" programmer. > >I am fed up to hear that he is the good guy because he gives his "work" away for >free, and commercial programmers are the bad guys because they keep their stuff >secret and STEAL things from Crafty. > >I'm silently putting up with this for more than 3 years now. > >I'm still wondering what are the algorithmic novelties Bob Hyatt brought to the >world. What are his personnal inventions? > >If I am the bad guy, then my image is already so damaged that I have nothing to >lose to open my heart and say what I think anyway. > >Yes, I am the bad one. > >Yes I am the greedy one trying to make money from my work. > >Yes, I am the arrogant one because I point out that the "good guy" has an >average program. > >Yes I am the blasphemous one because I dare to pronounce the name of the guru. > > >But let me tell you that I would happily exchange a dozen emails from Bob >against just one word from the following people: > > Ed Schröder > Richard Lang > Frans Morsch > Johan de Koening > Amir Ban > Stefan Meyer-Kahlen > Christian Donninger > >They are the real heroes. They are real creators. Most of them are my current >"enemies" on the board, but I know they are bright and I respect each of them. I >know that they have worked beyond the already known algorithms and you can be >sure that each of them has found smart new ones. > >Do you think creativity comes from nowhere? It is blood and tears, believe me. >It means nights trying to make an idea work, it means thinking about it 24 hours >a day, even when you are asleep. It means neglecting entire parts of your life >to save time for your creativity work. It means banging your head on the nearest >wall when you stupidly lose a game. > >It means waking up in the middle of the night with a bright idea just to >discover after several hours that it does not work. Repeat this 100 times to get >just ONE idea that works. > >It means putting yourself in danger. Unless you have an ideal situation, if you >want to spend enough time on chess programming you need to take risks. You might >very well lose your job. Or your girlfriend. You are going to spend too much >financial resources in new hardware, books and Internet connection time. > >All of this happened to me. > >I cannot be sure, but I would bet most of this happened to the aforementionned >people. > > >Now take some guy that collects all the known working algorithms, put them all >together in a program named Crafty, and make the sources public. > >Well, that's a nice idea. Thanks a lot. It is a fine pedagogic tool. > >But if the guy begins to shoot at programmers that do creative work, insult some >of them and pretend that they steal ideas from him, excuse me but I can't >refrain from saying: > >Remember, your program is at least 100 elo points behind ours. Each of us has >done at least 10 times more creative work than you have. You have spent 30 > years on this and you are still well behind. I think this whole thread is somewhat unfortunate and a bit distasteful. In my experience here, we don't normally have one programmer gloating about the superiority of his program over another program. I really have to say that I think that sort of thing makes this place worse, not better. But of course that is a subjective judgement. I must take issue with the paragraph above, however. The first claim is controversial at best. The second is frankly bizarre. You have done at least 10 times more creative work than Bob Hyatt? How do you know? The third just seems to be an attempt at an insult with no other purpose. > > >Why am I so crazy that I shoot at the good guy? > >As you see I'm very very upset. > I don't believe that excuses the tone of your post. > > Christophe > Andrew Williams
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