[Haskell-cafe] Re: Haskell in Industry

[Ketil Malde]

Tom Hawkins <tomahawkins at gmail.com> writes:

>> Second, I would like to know what exactly is bad about a Haskell
>> job in investment banking as a lot of good programmers work in this
>> industry.

> It's disproportionate.  95% of the job offerings in functional
> programming are with investment firms.  I believe investment banking
> is important, but does it really need to dominate a large percentage
> of the world's top tier programmers?

I suspect it is because it is an industry where software performance
matters. Doing things just a bit better than your competitors can make
all the difference (and a big difference) to the bottom line.  Thus it
is an industry that is willing to invest in new technology.

Most other industry seems to be conservative; nobody got fired for
choosing IBM, nobody gets criticized for choosing Java.  Being good
enough is usually sufficient, you don't have to be best, or even
better.

> Is computing the risk of derivative contracts more important than
> pursuing sustainable energy, new drug discovery, improving crop
> yields, etc.  

More important? - I don't know.  More willing to invest in software
quality - apparently.

> (Yes, I realize that's were the money is [...])

Exactly.

I don't think this is bad: having talented people recruited to work
on functional programming will improve the technology for all of us.

-k
-- 
If I haven't seen further, it is by standing in the footprints of giants