4 ms·

I hate to sound so negative but this feels so incredibly cringy. Smug, condescending and pedantic.

by efdee 3y ago

hyggetrold 3y ago
That's a lot of ESR's writing. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
tom_ 3y ago
Things every hacker once knew: esr is a dick. (Something that can easily be true, even while he has done some small number of valuable things. Though I do claim this essay is not one of those things)
- btilly 3y ago
  I remember once that I was at a Boston Perlmongers meetup, probably early January 2005, and commenting that someone needed to tell ESR that he wasn't God's gift to women. Everyone laughed. I went on to share a cringy story of ESR hitting on my then-wife. Which inspired a woman present to speak up and share a story of ESR hitting on her. Which lead to the next and then next story, until every last woman in the room shared their own ESR story. I was astounded. I'm hardly the biggest fan of political correctness. But to the extent that political correctness is a backlash, ESR represents what it is a backlash against.
  - ksherlock 3y ago
    I'll just throw this out there.... circa 2001 so I suppose you were aware of it at the time. https://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/sextips/ https://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/sextips/
    - btilly 3y ago
      Trust me. Everyone was aware of it. The thing is that his advice offered there isn't even particularly bad. But he'd just taken the importance of being confident when hitting on women to a ridiculous extreme. With no self-awareness. My ex found an unattractive cripple introducing himself. She didn't know who he was. His pass was essentially, "I'm worth $30 million. You may touch me. I might fuck you later." Her response boiled down to, "Eww." She was shocked to later find out that his first line was actually true at the time. (This was a few days after https://lwn.net/1999/1216/a/esr-rich.html https://lwn.net/1999/1216/a/esr-rich.html.) But, that notwithstanding, her response remained, "Eww."

I hate to sound so negative but this feels so incredibly cringy. Smug, condescending and pedantic.

by efdee 3y ago

I hate to sound so negative but this feels so incredibly cringy. Smug, condescending and pedantic.

hyggetrold 3y ago

That's a lot of ESR's writing. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

tom_ 3y ago

Things every hacker once knew: esr is a dick. (Something that can easily be true, even while he has done some small number of valuable things. Though I do claim this essay is not one of those things)

btilly 3y ago
I remember once that I was at a Boston Perlmongers meetup, probably early January 2005, and commenting that someone needed to tell ESR that he wasn't God's gift to women. Everyone laughed. I went on to share a cringy story of ESR hitting on my then-wife. Which inspired a woman present to speak up and share a story of ESR hitting on her. Which lead to the next and then next story, until every last woman in the room shared their own ESR story. I was astounded. I'm hardly the biggest fan of political correctness. But to the extent that political correctness is a backlash, ESR represents what it is a backlash against.
- ksherlock 3y ago
  I'll just throw this out there.... circa 2001 so I suppose you were aware of it at the time. https://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/sextips/ https://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/sextips/
  - btilly 3y ago
    Trust me. Everyone was aware of it. The thing is that his advice offered there isn't even particularly bad. But he'd just taken the importance of being confident when hitting on women to a ridiculous extreme. With no self-awareness. My ex found an unattractive cripple introducing himself. She didn't know who he was. His pass was essentially, "I'm worth $30 million. You may touch me. I might fuck you later." Her response boiled down to, "Eww." She was shocked to later find out that his first line was actually true at the time. (This was a few days after https://lwn.net/1999/1216/a/esr-rich.html https://lwn.net/1999/1216/a/esr-rich.html.) But, that notwithstanding, her response remained, "Eww."