The problem with being a PL researcher
The problem with being a programming languages researcher is that you can wind up like a blacksmith who spends all of his time tweaking his hammer and anvil, instead of producing less esoteric artifacts.
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Bec said,
May 10, 2008 @ 1:08 am
Are you sure that’s not just a characteristic of research in general?
washburn said,
May 13, 2008 @ 12:26 pm
@Bec: It may be more common for computer science/informatics, but I think it is definitely not so true when it comes to research in other areas. Having worked briefly in molecular biology, there is definitely no recursive emphasis on the tools. I suspect even in most areas of computer science, it is also not the case. People doing research on networks are not to my knowledge developing better networking technology, so that they can in turn develop better networking technology.