A
Story
Profession by Isaac Asimov
  • mezyt
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  • 1 hour ago
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Remind me of a recent discussion we had among Stackoverflow moderator:

> “Think about it,” he continued. “Who discovers the edge cases the docs don’t mention? Who answers the questions that haven’t been asked before? It can’t be people trained only to repeat canonical answers. Somewhere, it has to stop. Somewhere, someone has to think.”

> “Yes,” said the Moderator.

> He leaned back. For a moment, restlessness flickered in his eyes.

> “So why wasn’t I told this at the start?”

> “If we told everyone,” said the Moderator gently, “we’d destroy the system. Most contributors must believe the goal is to fix their CRUD apps. They need closure. They need certainty. They need to get to be a Registered Something—Frontend, Backend, DevOps, Full stack. Only someone who suffered through the abuse of another moderator closing their novel question as a duplicate can be trusted to put enough effort to make an actual contribution”

Link to the story without ads

https://www.inf.ufpr.br/renato/profession.html

  • catoc
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  • 4 hours ago
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Thanks - the OP’s site was a truly horrible experience
  • cdman
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  • 6 hours ago
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I haven't seen any ads on the site - I guess AdNauseum works well :)
Such a great ending. Really makes one wonder about the current AI hype of getting the machines to take over our work.
Is this still in print, maybe as part of a collection? I tried to find it but couldn't. Many of his other works seem to be available as paperback, including a bunch of story collections.
I have it in print. As part of Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories Volume 1 (Published by Harper Voyager)
The page linked has some more information available, but its author (abelard?) cites from "Mein Kampf" later, naming the books author as "Adolph" (sic!). Caution is advised.
This is my favorite Asimov story. It's got a protagonist with compelling motivations, a society that has problems but also convincing reasons why they persist, and a great ending.
  • zem
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  • 2 hours ago
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mine too, because one of my favourite sff tropes is that the more you regiment society, the more you rely on outsiders and those pushed to the edges for any real innovation.
Dr Antonelli said, “Or do you believe that studying some subject will bend the brain cells in that direction, like that other theory that a pregnant woman need only listen to great music persistently to make a composer of her child. Do you believe that?”

Apparently, Asimov was an early critic of the “Mozart in the womb” movement.

What the hell that was a good read. Ending was great (though the last line did confuse me)
Previously in the story it is mentioned that George as a child was curious about the etymology of the Olympics event and asked his father, only to be dismissed.

The callback at the end symbolizes his renewed curiosity. He is no longer ashamed of the way his mind works and if it makes him look different.

one of asimov's finest , a metaphor that continues to find relevance in my day to day existence - that the conclusions we so readily come to are assumptions made in the absence of the awareness of something more
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