> who love to think about whether there is a deeper hidden mathematical structure behind the business problems.
Yup and lots of whom started with programming as a hobby, and could chase after any shiny thing they saw, or run off whenever on any side quest that interested them.
Nobody wants to pay you hundreds of thousands of dollars to navel gaze, or run off down whatever path you feel is mathematically satisfying. Do that on your own time. You're being paid hundreds of thousands dollars to deliver business value - so do that. Build mathematical towers on your own time.
It's like paying someone by the day to paint your house and they paint the Mona Lisa in white paint on white and take 3x as long because it's more artistically beautiful even if the end result is just an all white painted house.
"Don't you see the deeper hidden artistic structure!?"
> You're being paid hundreds of thousands dollars to deliver business value - so do that. Build mathematical towers on your own time.
A better understanding of the deep underlying structure behind the business problems is a step towards proving business value. This is exactly what I mean with a " much less anti-intellectual way of approaching [business problems]".
A better understanding of the deep underlying structure behind the business problems can be a step towards proving business value. Or it can be interesting to a small number of people, but completely useless.
Of course, the people to whom it is interesting think that the case they're interested in is almost certainly in the "providing business value" category. In their enthusiasm, they probably over-estimate the odds...
Yup and lots of whom started with programming as a hobby, and could chase after any shiny thing they saw, or run off whenever on any side quest that interested them.
Nobody wants to pay you hundreds of thousands of dollars to navel gaze, or run off down whatever path you feel is mathematically satisfying. Do that on your own time. You're being paid hundreds of thousands dollars to deliver business value - so do that. Build mathematical towers on your own time.
It's like paying someone by the day to paint your house and they paint the Mona Lisa in white paint on white and take 3x as long because it's more artistically beautiful even if the end result is just an all white painted house.
"Don't you see the deeper hidden artistic structure!?"