As someone new to Python (at the time), I think he did aspiring programmers a great service by telling them to stay the hell away from DiP. When you're new to

As someone new to Python (at the time), I think he did aspiring programmers a great service by telling them to stay the hell away from DiP. When you're new to something, and it seems insurmountably difficult, you are faced with the question of whether you are awful at something, or if the teacher - for the sake of politeness - didn't do a good job. Feelings may have been hurt, but he's prevented some, if not a lot, of people from being scared away from Python and programming. His style serves a purpose, and it lets him cut the bullshit and reach out to people. The people who wanted to learn programming and Python were the recipients of Zed's soapbox speech, not Mark Pilgrim. LPtHW was created in the context, and the story of that context was laid out.