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genius programmer

Name: Anonymous 2013-09-18 1:38

Is there such a thing as a genius programmer? I wonder what would make somebody qualify as one. Programming a fully functional and usable OS on your own that outclasses the BSDs and linux within a short time?

Name: Anonymous 2013-09-18 14:05

>>6
genii?
I think `geniuses' is more correct. Normally I'm all in favor of sticking to the correct mother-language pluralization of nouns, but if you want to do that for `genius', surely there is some sort of obligation to stick to the mother-language meaning of the word, is there not? And my OLD gives:

genius ~ii, m. [GIGNO; cf. OHG chunni, AS. cynn]
1 The male spirit of a gens existing during his lifetime in the head of the family, and subsequently in the divine or spiritual part of each individual. b the personification of one's natural appetities. c (applied by a parasite to his patron). d (ancient definitions, etc.).
...
2 (attributed to gods). b the genius of an emperor, regarded as an object of worship.
...
3 (attributed to places, corporations, and other things); (in writings) talent, inspiration
...

(Where I've not included the citations because they're a pain in the neck to type and nobody really cares anyway.) So if we were to stick directly to that definition, only 3 would really come close to our modern usage of the word, and it would be more of a noun anyway, so that we could talk about Carmack's genius, or possibly of his genii, but to call him a genius wouldn't make any sense.

On a side note, we could then discuss the genius loci* of a particular setting, or perhaps community, or perhaps even of a particular machine, in which case ``conjur[ing] the spirits of the computer with our spells'' could be seen to not only invoke desired behavior through a program, but to invoke a state of inspiration or enlightenment through programming.

* While I'm waxing eloquent, http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/78/

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