5 ms·
This is crazy petty, I know, but the article starts with “You’ve never heard of Dan or Bob. But you should have.” I mean, I do know about VisiCalc. But even if
by genmon 5y ago
This is crazy petty, I know, but the article starts with “You’ve never heard of Dan or Bob. But you should have.”
I mean, I do know about VisiCalc. But even if I didn’t, don’t try to shame me for it — learning is awesome. This kind of negging from a blog post always makes me dismiss it as linkbait even when the subject matter (as with this piece) is actually pretty good.
- sokoloff 5y agoDan Bricklin was at some local tech event I was at several years back. I sort of recognized him, but had to surreptitiously check his name badge to be sure. Being old, I [sort of] knew who he was but figured most of the folks in our circle wouldn’t. Intending to honor him, I dropped a line about how smart the team who created Lotus 1-2-3 must have been. Needless to say, Dan was not as amused/honored at my reference as I’d intended (had I gotten his product correct).
- blendergeek 5y agoWhen I read this, I don't think the article is criticizing me, the reader. Rather, I think the article is criticizing the world that allowed the reader to never hear of Dan or Bob (as apparently Dan and Bob were pretty cool and everybody should hear about them).
- jacobolus 5y ago“You should have heard of this” is always an (implicit) criticism of whoever you should have heard it from (e.g. your parents, teachers, doctor, pastor, boss, news media, or the society at large), not a criticism of you yourself. But here the intended meaning is more along the lines of “it is unfortunate that we all collectively pay so much attention to Bill & Steve but don’t also remember and celebrate Dan and Bob”.
- gamache 5y agoI don't find it petty at all. Authors who resort to these tricks for positive effects should answer to the negative effects too.
- hallway_monitor 5y agoSeems like you took that pretty personally. I would interpret it as they have not been given the notoriety they deserve based on their impact.
- dlp211 5y agoNo one is shaming you. This is a critique of history failing to emphasize the importance of Dan and Bob, not a critique of what you know. I don't even understand how someone reads that sentence and then assumes it is an attack on them, the reader. It's such a common literary refrain "You've never heard of FOO, but you should have".
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]