tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8371593710878017578.post1531420550080681366..comments2023-05-26T04:46:04.103-07:00Comments on Elastic Steel: On Speaking in CodeRobert Minerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02230724650025013746noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8371593710878017578.post-13665901189352156172014-03-22T05:45:39.087-07:002014-03-22T05:45:39.087-07:00Many excellent things here, not least being the ge...Many excellent things here, not least being the gentle satire of "Best Practices." That is truly one of the cant phrases of our time. Its invocation seems calculated to discourage thinking where it is most needed. By which, I mean the asking of pertinent questions: "Best for whom? For all? For some others? Which others? To what end? By what criterion? According to which notion of what is good?" Even the use of the superlative degree here is questionable. The comparative would, I think, be preferable. "Better Practices" would be a slightly less-stupid cousin of Best Practices. It might recognize that some practices are better than others, but in scenarios of any complexity, no set is likely to be "best." "Better Practices" would at least leave some room for ambiguities, trade-offs, etc. "Best Practices," among its other sins, pretends that there is a single privileged set of things-to-do that are ideal, perfect, best. But really, the whole way of speaking of "practices" in these contexts strikes me as not very thoughtful. (I don't mean After Virtue, of course, but the trendy jargon of today.)<br /><br />Not that this was the main point of your blog entry, which I take to be that the virtues of listening are rarer than we typically appreciate. And that the codes we inevitably use in communicating are partly gendered—and that we often fail to recognize this, to our mutual peril.Robert Minerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02230724650025013746noreply@blogger.com