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This is quite possibly the stupidest thing I have heard this year. How could you possibly have come up with something that brain-dead? That is an opinion. It
by btilly 6y ago
This is quite possibly the stupidest thing I have heard this year. How could you possibly have come up with something that brain-dead?
That is an opinion. It is your opinion. I happen to have a very different opinion. It may be surprising to you, but surprise doesn't mean that it is trivially wrong.
Experience has taught me that if you have good content, then you have something worthwhile to say if I can get past the form. But, by contrast, someone who only has good form has nothing worthwhile to say. The more I you dig in, the less value that there is to find.
Obviously having both form and content is better than only having one. But if I have to choose one, I will choose to surround myself with people who have good content. Every time.
Is this how you normally are, or did you have to reach deep into your mind to find the most inane thing you could possibly say and pollute Hacker News with it? Goodness, I hope so. I don't even want to think about the possibility that you are this clueless in real life. I pity those that have to interact with you.
If you're curious, you can always find out more about me. My online profile goes back quite far. A few random things that I've written include https://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=59345 https://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=59345, http://elem.com/~btilly/effective-ab-testing/ http://elem.com/~btilly/effective-ab-testing/, and the answers at https://stackoverflow.com/users/585411/btilly?tab=answers https://stackoverflow.com/users/585411/btilly?tab=answers.
Or you can go with your already formed opinion. It is no skin off my back.
- saagarjha 6y agoI have read a lot of your writing, much more than you've linked here, simply by being active on this site for just over three years. While I don't really think I could say I know you personally, I think I have at least a little bit of context about you, what your interests are, and what you like to talk about. Your comments have been consistently useful and relevant, and I have no complaints there. But back to the topic: form and content are not a zero-sum game. You can be eloquent and polite while also conveying useful information, as you mention yourself. You can find people who do this, and it's not a big deal if you're trying to do it yourself. Honestly. If you think about it, the reason I'm replying to you (and why I stick around in some threads and leave others) is both the content and the way it's dicussed: I usually stop interacting when people start hurling insults, because it's just exhausting to deal with it for extended periods of time. It's part of the reason why I occasionally leave Reddit frustrated, why I'm not on Twitter, and why I let other people pull information out of Slashdot and 4chan for me. Really, if I can find one person who says something useful but surrounds it with vicious barbs, and another who can say the same thing but without the acid, why wouldn't I want to go with them? If I can only find the latter, perhaps I'm with the wrong people. And again, I do personally make some concessions for people I truly do think have exceptional content–but again, these are some concessions. Even Linus–who is usually the poster child of the "who cares how you say it?", who is exceedingly bright and talented, and who is basically a "equal opportunity abuser"–could probably tone it down some. When he is right it's just extra verbiage I need to scroll through and ignore, and when he's wrong (and he is for some things) it just makes him sound extra rude.
- btilly 6y agoI agree that form and content are not a zero sum game, and try to present with a combination of form and content. But when I consume information, I prioritize looking for content over form.