Highlights from SW Eng Books
The Design and Evolution of C++
by Bjarne Stroustrup
In Section 1.3
Paragraph 4
In history, some of the worst disasters have been caused by idealists trying to force people into “doing what is good for them.” Such idealism not only leads to suffering among its innocent victims, but also to delusion and corruption of the idealists applying the force. I also find idealists prone to ignore experience and experiment that inconveniently clashes with dogma or theory.
Paragraph 6
My preference is to slowly — often painfully slowly — persuade people to try new techniques and adapt the ones that suit their needs and tastes. There are effective techniques for achieving “religious conversions” and “revolutions,” but I have fundamental qualms about those techniques and grave doubts about their effects in the long term and on a large scale. Often, if someone can be easily converted to “religion” X, a further conversion to “religion” Y is likely, and the gain ephemeral.
A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
