Try to imagine a world where every programmer you know is a wannabe language designer, bent on molding the language to their whims. When I close my eyes and imagine it, I have a vision of the apocalypse, a perfect, pitch-black storm of utterly incomprehensible, pathologically difficult to debug code.

Whereas I have a vision of a world not too much different than the one we live in today. A few people invent ridiculous things, incomprehensible things. Most people carry on doing what they’ve always done. And a few people invent new, worthwhile things that move us forward.In my world, a few people inventing great things more than makes up for a few other people inventing ridiculous things. If we get Rails out of the deal, isn’t it worth giving Ick a bemused smile, tousling the creator’s hair and encouraging him to “keep trying?”Jeff goes on to put some smart people on a pedestal, prostrating before their greatness. I admire them as well, but I don’t confer a priesthood upon them. Once upon a time, reading and writing was not something plebeians did. Even the bible was a closed book, you only heard what was recited in Church.Does anyone doubt that democratizing the written word—through education and especially Gutenberg’s invention—has been a force for good?I imagine that if we traveled back in time we would find monks bewailing what would happen if anyone was allowed to write. People—the monks would stammer—people might write doggerel! Pornography!! Graffiti!!!But of course, they will also write beautiful things. And useful things. Like theories of Astronomy that violate what the priests “knew” to be true. And that is the point: if you leave things up to the priesthood, all you get is stuff that is neatly aligned with what they already know. You cannot make progress by subjecting new ideas to scrutiny in a committee, even a smart and well-educated committee. Maybe especially not a smart and well-educated committee.If it were up to educated people, do you think there would be personal computers today?Language design in programming is the same thing. Yes, it creates an opportunity for misunderstanding. Yes, you can make an amazing amount of trouble for yourself and for others. But to put it under lock and key in the Church where only the priest are permitted to mention it in hushed tones… this is wrong.The message is clear: You and I are worker ants. We do not think. We do not question our tools. We simply use them as we are directed by those in control. I find that far more horrifying than just about anything else I can imagine coming out of giving people more freedom.Come on. Really. Let’s get ahold of ourselves. As a wonderful movie’s last line went:“You have to have a little faith in people.”