"I prefer a lack of magic for my programming [production systems]" the dev says while they write in a language for a compiler they don't understand, with algorithms in the standard library they couldn't implement, performing processor specific optimizations they've never heard of, to run on a virtual computer whose amount of allocated RAM and CPU is mostly a polite fiction, where it will eventually be reduced to a microcode before running on a processor that simulates the software out of order.

@hrefna In my experience, "a lack of magic" generally means that all the magic is on the other side of the interface where you can't see it.

@hrefna Oh, I love this observation.

I’ve been very guilty of protesting against “magic” in the past. On reflection, I think what I’m wary of is leaky abstractions. I want to be able to reason about my code/software, and I’m fine with magic as long as it doesn’t interfere with the reasoning.

So thank you for making me dig into this.

@FenTiger @hrefna I think it's more about the side you won't debug. A typical dev won't debug a compiler or a CPU. They will debug their team's code.