Humans are bad at writing secure code, and GNOME developers are no exception. GNOME is primarily written using unsafe programming languages where simple mistakes in our code lead to devastating consequences for our users, and we make these mistakes all the time. No matter how much we try, GNOME developers will fail write secure code...
And duh, of course, this is more incremental and the upcost front is smaller, and the result is worse, so of course everyone does it.
It is entirely well known that in every human field of endeavor there is a tradeoff between costs and benefits, and not every thing that needs doing calls for maximum effort. Unless and until someone successfully implements a post-scarcity economy, it is going to stay that way.
Thus, something that raises the zero-effort floor (even if it doesn’t change the ceiling or the amount of effort required to attain the ceiling) is still valuable—maybe even more valuable than advancing the ivory-tower ceiling.
It is entirely well known that in every human field of endeavor there is a tradeoff between costs and benefits, and not every thing that needs doing calls for maximum effort. Unless and until someone successfully implements a post-scarcity economy, it is going to stay that way.
Thus, something that raises the zero-effort floor (even if it doesn’t change the ceiling or the amount of effort required to attain the ceiling) is still valuable—maybe even more valuable than advancing the ivory-tower ceiling.
score 1 · canonical