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Zach's writings, presentations, and videos are excellent. His passion and especially his creativity give him a distinctive voice among all the noise. That's wh

by edw519 15y ago

Zach's writings, presentations, and videos are excellent. His passion and especially his creativity give him a distinctive voice among all the noise. That's why I cringe with every f-word. Zach may think that helps give him his edge, but IMHO, it just distracts. He already has his edge. Zach, you've reached the big time now, so I challenge you to abandon the crutches. We'll all be better off. Try it; you'll see.

davesims 15y ago
Agreed to some extent, but imo it's not the swearing that distracts as much as the underlying intention to manipulate the audience, and the sense of egoism behind it. F-bombs-away as far as I'm concerned, but don't pretend you're Howard Stern and I'm a 'loyal follower'. We're coders, let's talk code. Funny is one thing, wit is fine, a little punk rock in your presentation never hurt anybody. But the idea that we need to craft ourselves into a 'brand' is crass to me.
- barrkel 15y ago
  We all have brands; in public, we try to be consistent with an idea we have of ourselves. Only some of us use that word thusly, but a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. So I ask you: is your objection to the use of the word, or to the notion of a consistent self? (Every act of communication is an attempt to manipulate: to teach, to convince, to humour, etc. Saying that is almost meaningless in this context, unless you have specific moral wrongs in mind.)
  - davesims 15y ago
    We all edit ourselves and present various versions, but hopefully the personas we create have an integrity beyond an intention to 'brand' ourselves in simple marketing scheme. I like the way you phrased that: 'consistent self'. It's true we have lots of 'selves,' but hopefully we work to integrate those and connect them to some truth about us that's more than simply 'build a following.' The idea of a persona as a 'brand', it seems to me reduces too quickly to commericalism or ego or both.
onan_barbarian 15y ago
Worse still, Zach is now well on the way to becoming the 'swearing in talks' guy. There's been something like 5 different stories on HN about this. If it wasn't a distraction before, it certainly is now.
buff-a 15y ago
That's why I cringe with every f-word You have a physical reaction when you hear a sound? Have you considered therapy? Or meditation? You have an unnecessary, irrational response that is affecting your appreciation of the world. If this were a drooping eyelid, or an eye deficiency such as short-sightedness, you would take steps to correct it. If this were super-sensitivity to sunlight would you wear sunglasses, or demand that the sun not rise? You perceive your reaction to be Zach's fault, you blame Zach and state that Zach should change his behavior. This is absurd.
- mtrimpe 15y ago
  This remind me of the Dutch Christian ad "When a curse falls, something breaks' (http://babbleonbabylon.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/vloek.jpg http://babbleonbabylon.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/vloek.jpg) Whenever I saw that I thought "Then don't drop the fucking glass!"
  - buff-a 15y ago
    =) If I were to say "Every time I hear the f-word I stab myself in the leg with a pocket-knife while screaming the lord's prayer at the top of my lungs", I think we'd all agree that I have a fucking problem. But as long as I'm just "cringing", well then that's entirely normal behavior and the other person needs to stop whatever the fuck it is they are doing.
- kahawe 15y ago
  > You have a physical reaction when you hear a sound Only deaf people and psychopaths probably have no reaction to spoken words, the overwhelming majority of people, however, does - one of the reasons lie detectors are even possible.
  - buff-a 15y ago
    Are you equating edw519's response to the stress involved of lying to the FBI on a lie detector test? I agree, that would be a very dangerous and absurd level of stress in response to hearing the word "fuck". My point is that, unlike lying to the FBI, hearing the word "fuck" should elicit no more of a response than "potato". Or were you saying that cringing is an entirely reasonable response to hearing the word "potato"?
MrMan 15y ago
Stop haranguing this kid with alternately treacly and condescending tone. Just drop it! This is HN at it's conformist worst.
mchanson 15y ago
Lame dogma. Let the guy have his own voice.
bodegajed 15y ago
I disagree. He makes good articles and that is all what I want; good stuff to read about. I don't mind the language our we are all adults here and our children won't be reading his posts. Don't mind them Zack, keep up the good work.
deleted 15y ago
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MostAwesomeDude 15y ago
If you think cursing is a crutch, you clearly have not seen the worst code this world has to offer.
deleted 15y ago
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buff-a 15y ago
"one man's vulgarity is another's lyric" SCOTUS Justice John Marshall Harlan II http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohen_v._California http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohen_v._California
darklajid 15y ago
The f-word is fuck. Less letters to type, easier to parse, same meaning anyway, less ridiculous. Defining nanny words doesn't change a thing. If you talk to your kid about 'poo' it's still smelly and - nothing but shit. At least you didn't write 'f-bomb', which is probably the most idiotic thing I've ever read. Now we can file that word next to its siblings 'a-bomb' and 'h-bomb' and hope that it stays underground, hidden, unused. As a message and threat to the world: Don't make us use it ever again! Annoy us and we're going to drop the [ahf]-bomb (depending on scale, I guess) on you!
- kirubakaran 15y ago
  He is not opposed to using it http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=fuck+by%3Aedw519&start=0 http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=fuck+by%3Ae... I think he means exactly what he has written -- just a suggestion to Zack on how he can present better.
deleted 15y ago
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by edw519 15y ago

davesims 15y ago

Agreed to some extent, but imo it's not the swearing that distracts as much as the underlying intention to manipulate the audience, and the sense of egoism behind it. F-bombs-away as far as I'm concerned, but don't pretend you're Howard Stern and I'm a 'loyal follower'. We're coders, let's talk code. Funny is one thing, wit is fine, a little punk rock in your presentation never hurt anybody. But the idea that we need to craft ourselves into a 'brand' is crass to me.

barrkel 15y ago
We all have brands; in public, we try to be consistent with an idea we have of ourselves. Only some of us use that word thusly, but a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. So I ask you: is your objection to the use of the word, or to the notion of a consistent self? (Every act of communication is an attempt to manipulate: to teach, to convince, to humour, etc. Saying that is almost meaningless in this context, unless you have specific moral wrongs in mind.)
- davesims 15y ago
  We all edit ourselves and present various versions, but hopefully the personas we create have an integrity beyond an intention to 'brand' ourselves in simple marketing scheme. I like the way you phrased that: 'consistent self'. It's true we have lots of 'selves,' but hopefully we work to integrate those and connect them to some truth about us that's more than simply 'build a following.' The idea of a persona as a 'brand', it seems to me reduces too quickly to commericalism or ego or both.

onan_barbarian 15y ago

Worse still, Zach is now well on the way to becoming the 'swearing in talks' guy. There's been something like 5 different stories on HN about this. If it wasn't a distraction before, it certainly is now.

buff-a 15y ago

That's why I cringe with every f-word You have a physical reaction when you hear a sound? Have you considered therapy? Or meditation? You have an unnecessary, irrational response that is affecting your appreciation of the world. If this were a drooping eyelid, or an eye deficiency such as short-sightedness, you would take steps to correct it. If this were super-sensitivity to sunlight would you wear sunglasses, or demand that the sun not rise? You perceive your reaction to be Zach's fault, you blame Zach and state that Zach should change his behavior. This is absurd.

mtrimpe 15y ago
This remind me of the Dutch Christian ad "When a curse falls, something breaks' (http://babbleonbabylon.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/vloek.jpg http://babbleonbabylon.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/vloek.jpg) Whenever I saw that I thought "Then don't drop the fucking glass!"
- buff-a 15y ago
  =) If I were to say "Every time I hear the f-word I stab myself in the leg with a pocket-knife while screaming the lord's prayer at the top of my lungs", I think we'd all agree that I have a fucking problem. But as long as I'm just "cringing", well then that's entirely normal behavior and the other person needs to stop whatever the fuck it is they are doing.
kahawe 15y ago
> You have a physical reaction when you hear a sound Only deaf people and psychopaths probably have no reaction to spoken words, the overwhelming majority of people, however, does - one of the reasons lie detectors are even possible.
- buff-a 15y ago
  Are you equating edw519's response to the stress involved of lying to the FBI on a lie detector test? I agree, that would be a very dangerous and absurd level of stress in response to hearing the word "fuck". My point is that, unlike lying to the FBI, hearing the word "fuck" should elicit no more of a response than "potato". Or were you saying that cringing is an entirely reasonable response to hearing the word "potato"?

MrMan 15y ago

Stop haranguing this kid with alternately treacly and condescending tone. Just drop it! This is HN at it's conformist worst.

mchanson 15y ago

Lame dogma. Let the guy have his own voice.

bodegajed 15y ago

I disagree. He makes good articles and that is all what I want; good stuff to read about. I don't mind the language our we are all adults here and our children won't be reading his posts. Don't mind them Zack, keep up the good work.

deleted 15y ago

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MostAwesomeDude 15y ago

If you think cursing is a crutch, you clearly have not seen the worst code this world has to offer.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

buff-a 15y ago

"one man's vulgarity is another's lyric" SCOTUS Justice John Marshall Harlan II http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohen_v._California http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohen_v._California

darklajid 15y ago

The f-word is fuck. Less letters to type, easier to parse, same meaning anyway, less ridiculous. Defining nanny words doesn't change a thing. If you talk to your kid about 'poo' it's still smelly and - nothing but shit. At least you didn't write 'f-bomb', which is probably the most idiotic thing I've ever read. Now we can file that word next to its siblings 'a-bomb' and 'h-bomb' and hope that it stays underground, hidden, unused. As a message and threat to the world: Don't make us use it ever again! Annoy us and we're going to drop the [ahf]-bomb (depending on scale, I guess) on you!

kirubakaran 15y ago
He is not opposed to using it http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=fuck+by%3Aedw519&start=0 http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=fuck+by%3Ae... I think he means exactly what he has written -- just a suggestion to Zack on how he can present better.

deleted 15y ago

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