More generally, the observation applies to pretty much any topic we “discuss” on OSNews.
I was trying to ignore a basketball game on the TV at the restaurant where I was having lunch today, and reflected for a bit on the silliness of fan behavior. People pick a team. Sometimes its because it happens to represent the city where they live. Most often, the reasons are even more arbitrary. But they pick it, for whatever pedestrian and unimportant reason, and they associate themselves with it in some bizarre way which is difficult for me to fathom. They seem to think that the team’s winning or losing actually has some bearing upon them and their lives. Perhaps even their value as a person. They think it is important. They’ve often never trained a day in their lives to play the particular sport. But that doesn’t matter because it is their team. It’s the ultimate in Us/Them paradigms. And it is a form of insanity, without a doubt. But it’s one of those insanities which affects so many people that few recognize it as such. And, of course, some are affected more strongly than others.
I had, about a half hour earlier, posted a defense of one of my statements, which had been misinterpreted by another reader, in a thread which I had not been following closely, but which could likely be summarized as “Linux Rocks and Vista Sucks!/Vista Rocks and Linux Sucks…” and it occurred to me, not for the first time, that the same effect manifests itself here on OSNews. Except the OSes, or DE’s, or programming languages, or code formatting style, or licensing choices, or development models, or hardware companies, or applications, or… well, anything else that people can find a way to imprint themselves with… serve in place of the sporting teams. The insanity is still of the same nature. And the ones who rationalize their choices the best are often the most severely impaired.
It nonconstructive. It’s predictable. It’s boring. It’s frustrating. It’s very sparse in redeeming social value. It goes on, day after day after day, drawing upon the seemingly inexhaustible energy supplied by the human penchant for thinking in terms of Us and Them. And today… I’m weary of it.
I too have attempted to rationalize this behavior that exists in nearly every human being (some more than others).
My best guess is it is some residual behavior that had benefits in evolution. There is power in numbers, and perhaps the creatures that find a bond based on a similarity (no matter how arbitrary) are more likely to survive the hardships of evolution.
I suppose if an early human lacked this similarity with the rest they could be placed into the “them” group and possibly killed eliminating that strain of DNA.
As bright as many of the people in the world are, it is shocking how few seem to be able to realize they do this. In some ways it handicaps their full potential.
I think it is called “identifying with” that item. Thats where to link to that persons identity comes from. Its the investment of personal identity just like any of the other things in life you identify with.
I’m sure you have a certain identifying traits that if people who know you can associate with you if they were to encounter those traits somewhere else. Why do you have a preferred style of clothing that you wear. Because you can identify with those who would choose to wear such apparel.
Now if I happen to find that particular style of dress deplorable and silly and attack the group of people who wear such ‘crap’ you would undoubtedly take it personally. At least thats what I would expect as a normal response. That would be because it is an indirect attack on you personal preferences.
The comparison of the OS that a user chooses to use vs. a sports team they choose to side with is quite a bit different IMO.
One of them is a tool you use – the other is mostly just for entertainment.
I don’t know about you – but I like to use tools that work the way I want them to.
It’s like picking a brand name for a product you purchase – given equal cost, you’re going to pick the one that has a history of working better, and being of higher quality.
If someone tells you that brand is crap and makes horrible products, and you know better, you’re likely going to say something.
I don’t see how that’s “identifying” with a product for the sake of it.
It would seem that what you’re basically trying to say is that all OSes are created equal, no one can possibly be better than another in any way. Anyone who claims otherwise must just be so obsessed with their favorite OS that they don’t know any better.
I’ll admit, there’s a certain amount of fanboism that occurs, and the statements and falsities that these people make can be ridiculous – but there are definitely real reasons why each OS is unique and different, and probably better than others in their own way. Chances are, these same people really did choose their current OS of choice for a good reason – they just can’t seem to express it in an intelligent, convincing way that others can comprehend
.. but I think that’d fit on most other OSes
More generally, the observation applies to pretty much any topic we “discuss” on OSNews.
I was trying to ignore a basketball game on the TV at the restaurant where I was having lunch today, and reflected for a bit on the silliness of fan behavior. People pick a team. Sometimes its because it happens to represent the city where they live. Most often, the reasons are even more arbitrary. But they pick it, for whatever pedestrian and unimportant reason, and they associate themselves with it in some bizarre way which is difficult for me to fathom. They seem to think that the team’s winning or losing actually has some bearing upon them and their lives. Perhaps even their value as a person. They think it is important. They’ve often never trained a day in their lives to play the particular sport. But that doesn’t matter because it is their team. It’s the ultimate in Us/Them paradigms. And it is a form of insanity, without a doubt. But it’s one of those insanities which affects so many people that few recognize it as such. And, of course, some are affected more strongly than others.
I had, about a half hour earlier, posted a defense of one of my statements, which had been misinterpreted by another reader, in a thread which I had not been following closely, but which could likely be summarized as “Linux Rocks and Vista Sucks!/Vista Rocks and Linux Sucks…” and it occurred to me, not for the first time, that the same effect manifests itself here on OSNews. Except the OSes, or DE’s, or programming languages, or code formatting style, or licensing choices, or development models, or hardware companies, or applications, or… well, anything else that people can find a way to imprint themselves with… serve in place of the sporting teams. The insanity is still of the same nature. And the ones who rationalize their choices the best are often the most severely impaired.
It nonconstructive. It’s predictable. It’s boring. It’s frustrating. It’s very sparse in redeeming social value. It goes on, day after day after day, drawing upon the seemingly inexhaustible energy supplied by the human penchant for thinking in terms of Us and Them. And today… I’m weary of it.
Thanks for listening.
-Steve
Edited 2008-04-05 23:13 UTC
amen.
I too have attempted to rationalize this behavior that exists in nearly every human being (some more than others).
My best guess is it is some residual behavior that had benefits in evolution. There is power in numbers, and perhaps the creatures that find a bond based on a similarity (no matter how arbitrary) are more likely to survive the hardships of evolution.
I suppose if an early human lacked this similarity with the rest they could be placed into the “them” group and possibly killed eliminating that strain of DNA.
As bright as many of the people in the world are, it is shocking how few seem to be able to realize they do this. In some ways it handicaps their full potential.
I think it is called “identifying with” that item. Thats where to link to that persons identity comes from. Its the investment of personal identity just like any of the other things in life you identify with.
I’m sure you have a certain identifying traits that if people who know you can associate with you if they were to encounter those traits somewhere else. Why do you have a preferred style of clothing that you wear. Because you can identify with those who would choose to wear such apparel.
Now if I happen to find that particular style of dress deplorable and silly and attack the group of people who wear such ‘crap’ you would undoubtedly take it personally. At least thats what I would expect as a normal response. That would be because it is an indirect attack on you personal preferences.
The comparison of the OS that a user chooses to use vs. a sports team they choose to side with is quite a bit different IMO.
One of them is a tool you use – the other is mostly just for entertainment.
I don’t know about you – but I like to use tools that work the way I want them to.
It’s like picking a brand name for a product you purchase – given equal cost, you’re going to pick the one that has a history of working better, and being of higher quality.
If someone tells you that brand is crap and makes horrible products, and you know better, you’re likely going to say something.
I don’t see how that’s “identifying” with a product for the sake of it.
It would seem that what you’re basically trying to say is that all OSes are created equal, no one can possibly be better than another in any way. Anyone who claims otherwise must just be so obsessed with their favorite OS that they don’t know any better.
I’ll admit, there’s a certain amount of fanboism that occurs, and the statements and falsities that these people make can be ridiculous – but there are definitely real reasons why each OS is unique and different, and probably better than others in their own way. Chances are, these same people really did choose their current OS of choice for a good reason – they just can’t seem to express it in an intelligent, convincing way that others can comprehend
Of course as the previous poster suggests this is true of other OS too.
Without looking lets see how many of the SkyOS posts we can recite
I’ll start the ball rolling with…
OMG!!! Robert is a coding machine!
SkyOS: log(2^n) / log(2) (it appears to be progressing quickly, but doesn’t actually get anywhere)
Windows: n+1 < n
OS X: n+1 > n
Haiku = R5
Amiga = 0 * 0 (where 1: is software availability, and 2: is hardware availability)
“OMG paying for a beta?”
and more or less the reply to it
“You get access to the final version with that payment”
I believe there’s at least a SELECT missing there
Disclaimer: I don’t use MySQL — but AFAIK, it’s not standard as written.
edit: gah, can’t even spell
edit: reference to back me up:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/insert-select.html
Edited 2008-04-06 00:49 UTC
A SQL statement with a Folgers coffee reference. I’m impressed, Thom!
I really think to OS has come far. I’ve tried a few of the latest builds and they had some interesting ideas in them.
Keep up the good work!