> I assume that the Finnish method isn't magically successful, and it looks good on paper at the expense of not enabling the best and brightest to reach their full potential.
Here's some supporting evidence. Let's compare it to a country of similar size, Singapore:
Of course, IMO scores are not exactly the most important measure ever, but I suspect, nonetheless, that smart Finnish students spend more time playing computer games than their counterparts in Singapore.
If you are interested in making games for consoles you are pretty much restricted to what the console maker's software development kit supports, which is usually C/C++. It's usually impractical to reverse engineer the hardware and supply your own system libraries in another language.
Computer games are another story, but the same facts are generally true, that you should use the language which provides the libraries where most of the work is already done for you. There are the most number of game development kits for C++, so that's why C++ is popular for game development.
For what it's worth, I have done a few games using the ORGE rendering engine and plugged the game elements (physics, AI) with separate libraries and it has worked fairly well.
"If you are interested in making games for consoles you are pretty much restricted to what the console maker's software development kit supports, which is usually C/C++. "
Post acquisition (by Sony) Naughty Dog seems to have shifted to c++ but seems to have shifted back partially to lisp (C++/ scheme combo as far as I can make out) for their "Uncharted" games for the PS3.(http://www.naughtydog.com/docs/Naughty-Dog-GDC08-Adventures-... Warning PDF)
It is C++. Note that this perfectly reasonable individual choice tend to ensnare us all in a local maximum.
One route out of this local maximum could be CPUs optimized for garbage collection and a high rate of function call. I doubt we will see that any-time soon, though.
META: Why the downmod? I assume it wasn't out of mere disagreement, so I must have made a specific mistake, but I can't see it (I answered the question, then stated an opinion which I think was on topic).
> Just approaching it as if it were a difficult task helps.
I have literally the exact opposite experience. I procrastinate horribly on difficult tasks (or just any task that I don't know exactly how to do.) I guess different people are wired differently. If the OP is wired like me, I'd advise him to try to do work as quickly as possible and not worry about quality. Just come home from school and finish everything before 5:00.
true. what i meant was that my off-the-cuff physics radar did not automatically think this was impossible. i used a gas as an example, but solids can also be restructured into different volumes and shapes. for example, diamonds, charcoal and graphite. i'm no doubt missing the precise definition of the math problem...i was just responding from my practical layman perspective.
> Funny, I think all of these people are athiest/agnostic, goes to show you...
Why do you think that? Dylan famously converted to Christianity, BHO is a long time churchgoer, and Ron Paul is supposedly a creationist Christian. I don't really know about the others (obviously Einstein had a lot to say about god and dice and so on, but that hardly makes him a believer...)
Oh yes, overlooked Ron Paul, Obama too, as religious people. Jury is out on Einstein, hes has made comments both ways. I'm probably wrong about a few others too.
And for some reason I wrote Steve Fossett when I meant Richard Branson.
Sadly not. I'm British & this guy is not joking. His 'career' is making unobservant remarks about his life for a newspaper. The internet has opened up what he does to comparison & he is discovering that the market places a low value on his work. Rather than wonder why he is not popular he blames 'nerds'.
> Or, everyone follows their self interest and realizes that they will need to work out some agreements to moderate fishing or there will be no fish.
This can have downsides, namely the sort of "credentialism" that's often derided on this site (licensing for interior decorators, etc.) All the players in some industry decide that it's in their best interest to appeal for regulation which will prevent others from entering this industry.
Oh, absolutely. I just don't buy the idea that the default expected behavior from people is to shot themselves in the foot so blindly (e.g., a race to see who can empty the lake first).
That people may slowly stab themselves in the foot repeatedly is more likely.
