Technologists Notes

“And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’” – Bob Dylan (1964)

tl;dr In these times, we must speak out everywhere

Some may not know of David Patterson, a pioneer of modern computer processor architecture. Those of us who were privileged to know John Cocke at IBM might emphasize that Cocke invented “RISC” concepts years before Patterson developed and popularized them, but that distinction is irrelevant here.

LinkedIn is a place for primarily professional discussions, vs. the breadth of Facebook. “The mission of LinkedIn is simple: connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.”

Some of the items cited at Yesterday’s News fit in well at LinkedIn, but many days those collected items are far afield from typical professional discussions. Though dissettling, in these dramatically changing times it seems necessary to broaden the topics posted at LinkedIn. David’s post “Many of you know me as a lifelong computer scientist. I usually make scientific arguments. But not today.“, supports that assertion. Seeing someone as illustrious as David use LinkedIn for political discussion assuages my discomfort.

David Patterson – Life Lessons from the First Half-Century of My Career – Communications of the ACM, Volume 68, Issue 2, February 2025

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