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Huh? Here's the relevant section from the page you link to, in full: David Heinemeier Hansson: [in response to a question] I try not to predict the future. I’
by mechanical_fish 18y ago
Huh? Here's the relevant section from the page you link to, in full:
David Heinemeier Hansson: [in response to a question]
I try not to predict the future. I’m not a big believer in fortune telling. The best way to predict the future is to implement it.
Since when was quoting a classic aphorism a source of "guilt"? Am I supposed to include a footnote every time I use phrases like premature optimization, or considered harmful, or half-implemented buggy version of half of Common Lisp in casual conversation? Or does the do-not-quote-others rule only apply to DHH, who seems to attract character assassins as honey draws flies?
- jhancock 18y agoagain, I wasn't trying to bash DHH. Just adding some humor to my search for the very hard to find quote I'm still looking for. But if you wonder why DHH seems to attract character assassins, look no further than how he signed off from his Christmas Eve post http://www.loudthinking.com/posts/36-work-on-what-you-use-and-share-the-rest http://www.loudthinking.com/posts/36-work-on-what-you-use-an... "So kumbaja motherfuckers and merry christmas!" That's a great way to tick off a billion or so people.
- tptacek 18y agoThere are really a billion people who (a) read DHH's blog and (b) have the maturity of a middle school student? How sad they must be when their peers turn on "The Wire".
- jhancock 18y agoI think you understand the point. Saying things like that on Christmas Eve is a clear attempt to be a lightning rod for criticism. I guess I'm going to have to email Mr. Kay myself if I want to find this so hard to find quote. Noone on HN seems to know it. I do recall that when I read it at least 10 years ago, I read it "offline". Maybe the goog doesn't know this one? ;)
- mechanical_fish 18y agoYeah, I'm just not getting the ticked off part. Could there really be a "billion" blog readers who have never seen Bruce Willis in Die Hard and therefore can't spot the pop-culture reference in DHH's closing quote? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095016/quotes http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095016/quotes I thought that even one-celled animals had seen Die Hard by now. But perhaps it's more of a generational thing than I had realized.
- axod 18y agoNever seen Die Hard. Never really wanted to... I didn't think it was that big a movie.
- Xichekolas 18y agoAre you serious?! At least see the first one.
- ahoyhere 18y agoI finished one of my conference sessions (with about 150 people) with "Kumbaya, motherfuckers!" and nobody complained.
- jhancock 18y agoWould you finish your talk with a funny cartoon drawing of Muhammed? Where do you draw the line in offending people's religious beliefs?
- tlrobinson 18y agoSince when was quoting a classic aphorism a source of "guilt"? Since he's a moderately influential person participating in an interview where he knows his statements will be reprinted as his own words. Is this common? If so, then perhaps I'm wrong for assigning blame to DHH. Can you point me to some other interviews where the interviewee uses a well-known quote that's not his without some form of attribution? Usually when people quote Greenspun's 10th Rule they cite it as such.
- ahoyhere 18y agoIt's common as dirt. You quote Plato, Aristotle, Ovid, and other Grecoroman philosophers all the time, and you don't even know it. Not to mention Shakespeare, Aesop, and even modern day people. (Inspiration vs perspiration, for example.) Many "sayings" have origins with a specific person who said or wrote it, in a documented fashion, even though they've slipped into common culture. Even new words, like "OK" and "bloodstained." If people really want to bitch about David that much, there are much, much better grounds they can find than this.