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about.html
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The purpose of abstractions.win is to promote innovation in software development that leads to significant leaps forward in the field.
We do this through encouraging reflection on how to best (most productively, accurately, usefully, generalizably) represent the virtual constructs that the industry deals in.
There is a problem with computer science academia being too far removed from practice.
In a field where the distance between theory and practice could theoretically be almost nonexistant, a huge amount of research effort takes place a long way from practical application.
At the same time the academic field suffers from subcultures with the same naval-gazing tendencies found in other academic disciplines.
This is not to say that basic research or purely theoretical endeavours are of no value.
Many new innovations come exactly from these places.
But the incentives in academia are not pointed directly at scientific discovery and innovation.
Can we correct the aim somewhat?
The industry suffers under explosive growth, and from its relative youth.
There are no masters or agreed-upon definitions of mastery.
And those who approximate mastery are so few and far between that they cannot possibly train all the new developers in the industry.
More and more software developers finish their education every year and enter a job market where they are unlikely to get the attention from more senior developers that would appropriately help shape them into competent developers.
Furthermore, more senior developers in our industry are headhunted by venture capital funded or monopolistic large companies with an incentive pointed squarely at maximizing profits, with no care for ensuring a sustainable future for the industry.
Can we provide resources for people wanting to think critically about their skills and learn how to improve their skills?
The problem is impossible to <em>fix</em>—the forces working against this aim are simply too strong, and we are starting too late.
But maybe we can make a dent in it.
One way of synthesizing our way out of these problems is encouraging collaboration between academically minded practicioners and practically minded academics.
What new innovations could we find by pointing the greatest academic minds at the real problems faced in industry?
Can we use these meetings to train practicioners in more academically rigorous thinking, strengthening our industry as a whole, as we do industry?
Lofty goals.
And now that they are written here, we're committed.
Which means we fail or succeed in public.
We hope you'll help us succeed!
<hr>
abstractions.win is a media outlet for thoughtful articles written by academics, emphasizing <em>powerful abstractions</em>, ways of framing problems that make them easier to solve.
People who write articles get paid for their work.
And a share of profits generated from the article.
So does everyone putting time into building the site.
It won't be that much to begin with, but we will fix that as time goes on.
If we increase rates for writing, we do so by also paying more to those originally paid a lower rate.
abstractions.win is a community for people to discuss the publications, decide on matters of content and focus, and help push the community onwards.
We hope the community will facilitate meetings that lead to interesting new thoughts and innovations, that can then be shared in the media outlet.
We emphasize building, thinking and sharing in public.
We encourage constructive, considerate feedback—with an aim to move the research forward, not dash people's hopes and dreams.
There is a big difference between a difference of opinion and a mistake of facts.
We fund the site via community membership donations (set at a voluntary level) and classified ads posted by trusted community members (3 mo community membership required, subject to community approval).
We may add income streams in the future, but they will be chosen so they do not track readers' behavior or build profiles on them; and so that the site is not financially dependent on a few large donors who could begin to pressure the editorial process.
<hr>
Milestones—lofty goals, gotta dream big:
<ol>
<li>Get a member of the community we, the team, don't know personally</li>
<li>Publish articles from people not in the team running the site</li>
<li>Make sure everyone who has published an article has gotten paid at least something</li>
<li>Publish a podcast with an author of an article</li>
<li>Publish an article from a published academic about their (relevant) work</li>
<li>Make sure everyone working on the site has been compensated fairly for their work</li>
<li>Set up grants to fund Ph.D.s or research projects with any profits from the outlet</li>
<li>
Set up an academic, peer-reviewed journal proving a better model than the status quo for related academic research.
Ensure authors, editors get paid.
</li>
</ol>