Reminds me of one of Rich Hickey's talks where he states that people just love to solve puzzles, and that complex languages with, for example, demanding type systems trick people into thinking they are adding safety or value when in fact they're just outsmarting themselves.
Often when I write something in Haskell I have this feeling. It feels satisfying to build up nice types and constructs but I don't know if it at all pays off in any objective or empiric sense. I can't really tell if I've invented the problem that I just solved.
> I can't really tell if I've invented the problem that I just solved.
Priceless observation, nicely done!
I was quite inspired by Rich Hickey's Simple Made Easy talk when I listened to it a last year. I think that's the one you're referring to. Excellent food for thought in that talk.
Often when I write something in Haskell I have this feeling. It feels satisfying to build up nice types and constructs but I don't know if it at all pays off in any objective or empiric sense. I can't really tell if I've invented the problem that I just solved.