[TheMode]

But he says that he has a large-scale systemic solution, it is literally the reason for his videos.

He isn't doing it so I can get my CPU trivia, but because he believes it will result in better software. Been at it for years, and so far I don't think it's going better.

My opinion is that better software will not come from CPU-aware people, but from people having enough of all the BS and switching to simpler solutions. You speak about language/libraries, what make you think it would come from those?

I do believe he is smart, just unfortunate he puts his talent on the wrong path. It's not like he does not understand the impact of simplicity/working independently, as it is how he made his "fast terminal" showcase: by tying to bypass system libraries as much as possible, transforming it into a simple (or at least less theoretical) problem.

[sarchertech]

This is such an absolutely wild take to me. Screw those Mythbusters guys trying to explain the scientific method to people. That's not a systemic solution to fixing scientific illiteracy in the US. Sesame Street teaching kids to count? Those guys are way off the mark because it's not going to measurably improve economic performance. You'll never actually change anything just by teaching people stuff.

I'm 100% certain that Casey Muratori doesn't think that his paywalled course is going convince literally every programmer to to care about performance, or to stop Facebook from building slow apps.

He's trying to convince some small percentage of people that performance is something they should be thinking about when they program, and that they should understand the tradeoffs they are making when they choose to use some slow method, algorithm, library, language, or system because it provides some other benefit.

When someone writes a book like "math for dummies" that says on the back cover "I think basic math is a useful skill for everyone to have, and if we all learned basic math the world would be a better place!"

That's not the author stating their true belief that their book is going to literally teach the majority of the world basic math. That's an aspirational goal or in the worst case it's sales copy.

Publicly calling that person out for wasting their time is really something else.

Creating straw men to attack like "You will never be able to force developers worldwide to start writing everything in C/Assembly" when he explicitly states that this isn't his goal makes me think you're just looking for some reason to shit on the guy.

>You speak about language/libraries, what make you think it would come from those?

I have no idea when if or how a technical solution will be found.

[TheMode]

"Math for dummies" book writers don't argue that mathematicians are stupid/incompetent because they do not spend enough time on the basics.

It has also nothing to do with teaching people to count, read, or the scientific method. Every. Single. Software I use is bloated, I am unaware of any software solely consuming that it should, nothing is close to the theoretical limit, this is not a knowledge issue. If you have such software in mind feel free.

Casey continuously says that the problem with software is that developers do not understand performance, and so that the problem will be solved once they do. I am not overly familiar with his paid course, but he did stuff before that. He has essentially the same opinion as Jonathan Blow.

The course being paywalled isn't really an argument for either of us, on his side it is most likely a compromise, just because this isn't the grand plan to convince millions of developers doesn't mean he doesn't intent for it to help his cause.

Casey believing the problem at scale to be cultural isn't some guess, I actually asked him: https://x.com/cmuratori/status/1687138791356833793

> that this isn't his goal makes me think you're just looking for some reason to shit on the guy.

You can consider it a hyperbole if you want, but essentially what I am saying is that he wants to put the burden on the developers, without really changing the underlying structure.

I am not shitting on him for the sake of it. I do really like his (and Jonathan) observations, and I will continue to watch them, I just find it unfortunate that both waste their time on solution that will not affect anything at scale (one with a custom language, the other with specialized course)