Programmers as Map Makers

My good friend Damian Conway sent me a pointer to “Bounty Hunters”, a well-written piece about software patents. The heart is an analogy between patents (to encourage inventors to invent) and bounties (to encourage hunters to catch criminals). The writing is great and reminds me of Mark Jason Dominus and Richard Feynman. The final section comparing programmers to map makers was thought-provoking–and hey, it can’t be any more far-fetched than Hackers as Painters, right? Good background reading for the software patent brawl we’ll have at EuroOSCON.