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This sounds like a good argument until you realize that the people the geeks most love are all level-headed and good-natured, people who promote the good of all
by ahoyhere 16y ago
This sounds like a good argument until you realize that the people the geeks most love are all level-headed and good-natured, people who promote the good of all. Often these are men/women who inspired the geeks to be geeks to start with. Example: Carl Sagan.
So for all the geeks who were inspired to become geeks by Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman, Spock, etc., to fall so short of their ideal... clearly there is insecurity and childishness at work.
Refusal to learn how to treat others well is not cultural, it's immature. Perhaps most importantly, it's total sour grapes compared to one's original inspiration for geekhood.
- dkarl 16y agoFeynman is an example of a guy who would be ruthless in a technical discussion but charming in a personal context. (Well, charming towards your wife, anyway.) Context is everything.
- ahoyhere 16y agoEinstein, then. I have heard no tails of the biggest physics brain being a jerk, in public or private. Have you? If Einstein can be nice, some sadsack .Net developer (or Erlang developer) can be, too.
- Locke1689 16y agoI'm not sure you're actually being honest in your examples. Carl Sagan, sure, but Feynman was rumored to be extremely arrogant in his technical discussions. Linus is known for his giant flames on the mailing list. Dijkstra was impolite at best. Maybe we just think our idols were always nice and helpful because we want them to be?