Re:A Parable by Dijkstra (1973)
by zaphar on Monday July 16, 2018 @08:49AM
(#17540869)
It's a parable which means it is fiction that that ignores details to make a point. As such it does it's job quite well unless you yet to read more into it than the author intended.
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To me this says that parables are fairly useless: with enough padding any trivial insight may seem wise. I can't at the moment imagine something that I would think important to communicate which would be made more clear by a parable. I would also be concerned about being patronizing. I'm sure this makes good fodder for academic quibbling, but I am beginning to doubt whether Dijkstra was more insightful than arrogant.