4 ms·
I had Olin as a professor while he was still at Georgia Tech. Below is roughly as I recall from him telling the story. Olin has a colorful sense of humor (see
by gte525u 7y ago
I had Olin as a professor while he was still at Georgia Tech.
Below is roughly as I recall from him telling the story. Olin has a colorful sense of humor (see his usenet posts).
The anti-acknowledgements page was originally intended for his doctoral thesis. It was going to contain everyone who discouraged or otherwise hindered his efforts to degree (e.g. parents, girlfriend). His advisor talked him out of it.
Later when he was at the one of MIT's lab he puts in the SCSH manual. The manual gets printed and distributed. He doesn't hear anything. Later he gets called into the head of the lab's office. Olin comes in and sits down. The director takes out the manual and opens it to the acknowledgements section. The first question is "Who has been stealing your work?", the second one is "do you need to go into rehab?". Olin tells him it's a joke. It ended up being a career limiting move for him.
- phyzome 7y agoAnd I had him as a professor later, at Northeastern. He said it turns out it's really easy to convince someone you're crazy, and then really hard to convince someone you're actually not.
- AceJohnny2 7y agoA lot of people are working hard to keep it under control. Those who show signs that they can't will be viewed with much wariness, as we anticipate the next outburst that will do physical damage. Proving that that one outburst is a one-off and nothing to worry about is justifiably hard.
- shadowgovt 7y agoYeah, go figure. I'm glad it seems he was able to roll with it and go on being his awesome self, but there's a solid cautionary tale here: assume someone with power over you is going to find and take offense to your snark and it will hinder your forward momentum. ... that's the phrasing for sociopaths. For everyone else, you can summarize it as "Don't be an asshole."
- aidenn0 7y agoI have made some similar career limiting moves in the past, and I regret none of them. The single thing I am most grateful for is being privileged to be in a situation where I don't have to dial down the snark to survive. I've known people for whom it would have been a "roof over your head" limiting move, and that sucks. I do try to keep the snark to a minimum on hn though, because I firmly believe that I should only be an asshole to someone if I'm also granting them the opportunity to punch me in the face. My apologies for the few times I've not done so.
- bitwize 7y agoOr as I've put it, everything you say will be given the least charitable interpretation possible by the least reasonable person in the world -- a person with your boss's phone number.
- egdod 7y agoHardly surprising. What did he think was going to happen?
- QuesnayJr 7y agoThat everyone would get it was a joke?
- lukego 7y agoSad to hear that! Related viewpoint from a contemporary: Greenspun's "Reinventing professionalism for software engineers" https://philip.greenspun.com/ancient-history/professionalism-for-software-engineers https://philip.greenspun.com/ancient-history/professionalism...
- aidenn0 7y agoI love the comment that some engineers are too arrogant or lacking in social skills to collaborate, and then gives the example of Linus Torvalds as someone who is humble and friendly.
- lonelappde 7y agoTorvalds only unleashes his wrath on senior people who should know better. He gives voice to the masses.
- yakshaving_jgt 7y agoThings like this being a potentially career-limiting move — especially these days — is a strong argument for more software developers to start their own businesses. I consider it a serious and grave problem that if someone takes issue with your worldview — or if you merely ask the "wrong" questions, or even if you ask completely innocent questions that are misinterpreted — they'll go after your livelihood. Case in point: http://www.tersbakis.com/news/17661/how-swedish-professors-life-was-destroyed-over-raising-migrant-gang-rape-issue-on-twitter/ http://www.tersbakis.com/news/17661/how-swedish-professors-l...
- gte525u 7y agoHe did and he turned out fine - he co-founded a dotcom and then afterwards became a professor.
- marcinzm 7y agoYou have someone who publicly says they're a hair away from committing multiple acts of murder, carry a gun with them and are a barely functioning alcoholic. Do you expect people to not take alcoholism and murder, with means on hand, seriously?
- yakshaving_jgt 7y agoOf course that specific case should be taken seriously. I'm not sure what made you think I thought otherwise.
- whatshisface 7y agoWasn't the Terminator elected governor of California? I expect people to only take violence seriously when it's, you know, real.
- kragen 7y agoHe's had tenure at Northeastern University since 2006. NEU is an R1 university in Boston. His dissertation has 741 citations in Google Scholar, where his h-index is 19. Matt Might is among his advisees. He might not win the Turing Award but I think his career is doing okay; he's probably one of the world's most successful 128 computer scientists.
- gte525u 7y agoI didn't mean to imply he screwed up his life. My intent was just to convey the anecdote as I remember him telling it. I recall he referred to it a 'CLM' at that time. That was likely just his oratory flair.
- kragen 7y agoOh, I can totally believe he would have described it that way. And for someone else it might have been. But his career doesn't seem to have been particularly limited by it.