Oversimplifications in HtN

[esr at thyrsus.com]

John Cowan <cowan at locke.ccil.org>:
> Ian Lance Taylor scripsit:
> 
> > Yes, but my reading of your paper is that you are claiming that my
> > primary motivation is the ``reputation-game.''
> 
> I think that this is comparable to saying, in biology, that a
> tree "wants" to grow tall in order to reach the sun.  This does not
> say that an introspective tree would not assign a quite different
> motive.   It is what Dennett calls the third-person viewpoint, or
> hetero-phenomenology.
> 
> I think you can safely read Eric as claiming that hackers behave
> *as if* they were motivated by the reputation game.

Not quite.  My claim is more like this:

1. Most hackers are motivated by the reputation game, whether or not
   they realize it consciously.  (Most don't, but come to realize it
   once they see the analysis and do a little introspection.)

2. For those who are not, their behavior can be correctly predicted by
   an "as if" because it's the way they learn to function in the culture.
-- 
		<a href="http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr">Eric S. Raymond</a>

Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they
are in almost every kingdom in Europe. The supreme power in America
cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword, because the people are armed,
and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops.
	-- Noah Webster