Swearing doesn't bug me, it's neither here nor there as far as I'm concerned. But the idea that it's being used to carefully craft a 'persona' in order to 'buil

Swearing doesn't bug me, it's neither here nor there as far as I'm concerned. But the idea that it's being used to carefully craft a 'persona' in order to 'build a brand' is annoying and frankly immature. I have very little patience with the idea that our personalities can and should be carefully crafted for public consumption, to 'build a following.' There's a world of difference between, for instance, _why's comic persona constructed from wit and creativity, and a 'branded' persona constructed out of simplistic marketing principles. It definitely reinforces the idea that, in this case, the swearing is a device used to draw attention to the speaker rather than the speaker's point. And that was the thrust of the original criticism. I usually don't even notice or care if someone curses in a presentation, but my douche-radar starts going off if I get the sense that it's being done for self-aggrandizement. I don't get the feeling that Zach is a douche-y kind of guy. But one of his 'personas' might be leaning that direction. Is this where the technology community is going? Do we really need 'personas' in addition to technical accomplishments and good communication skills? Are technologists going to start looking more and more like wide receivers?