...Then you start building things like the Berlin wall to keep people inside your community. In anthropological terms, that's tribalism. A tribal Perl programmer might say, 'If you leave the Perl tribe to go and join the Python tribe, we will hunt you down, cook you, and eat you.' Or if you join the Ruby tribe, you will explode. By and large, I am not in favor of tribalism. Except for my tribe, of course.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Creating exclusive language communities is tribalism, which the author dislikes except for his own.
- In plain terms
- Building walls around language groups is tribalism.
- What can you take from it?
- Avoid forming exclusive, hostile language tribes.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What balance between community and openness is healthy?
- How to prevent tribal hostility?
Another view
Some degree of community identity can be beneficial.
More from Larry Wall
[Boxed] Multiple bouncing balls in a box are a metaphor for community. Notice how the escaping balls explode. This is what happens to people who move from Perl…
Permalink to quote #286 The three chief virtues of a programmer are: Laziness, Impatience and Hubris.
Permalink to quote #288 In computer science, it is said that premature optimization is the root of all evil.
Permalink to quote #285
Related quotes
[Boxed] Multiple bouncing balls in a box are a metaphor for community. Notice how the escaping balls explode. This is what happens to people who move from Perl…
Larry WallLarry Wall quote #286 Man was formed for society.
William BlackstoneWilliam Blackstone quote #2 Wot cher! all the neighbours cried, Who yer gonna meet, Bill, Have yer bought the street, Bill? Laugh! I thought I should've died, Knocked 'em in the Old Kent …
Albert ChevalierAlbert Chevalier quote #3