<p>In any large organization, mediocrity is almost by definition an overwhelming phenomenon: the systematic disqualification of competence, however, is the manager’s own invention, for the sad consequences of which they should bear the full blame.</p>

In any large organization, mediocrity is almost by definition an overwhelming phenomenon: the systematic disqualification of competence, however, is the manager’s own invention, for the sad consequences of which they should bear the full blame.

[EWD-966] Management and mathematics

"It should give us better control over the task of organizing our thoughts. If it did not do so, to my taste we should not deserve the computer at all!" thus concluded E.W. Dijkstra in 1972 at the end of his Turing Award Lecture. Four years earlier, during a conference in 1968, he also coined the phrase "Software Crisis", noting that the main challenge of the software industry, how to achieve intellectual control over the complexities of our own makings, had not yet been met.

We revisit Dijkstra's claims in this podcast. Not your typical functional programming cheerleading babble. The intent is to leave you confoundedly humble, dazed and inspired. Only thereafter... perhaps... we can become to be in control of our own makings!

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"It should give us better control over the task of organizing our thoughts. If it did not do so, to my taste we should not deserve the computer at all!" thus concluded E.W. Dijkstra in 1972 at the end of his Turing Award Lecture. Four years earlier, during a conference in 1968, he also coined the phrase "Software Crisis", noting that the main challenge of the software industry, how to achieve intellectual control over the complexities of our own makings, had not yet been met. We revisit Dijkstra's claims in this podcast. Not your typical functional programming cheerleading babble. The intent is to leave you confoundedly humble, dazed and inspired. Only thereafter... perhaps... we can become to be in control of our own makings!

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[EWD-966] Management and mathematics

[EWD-966] Management and mathematics