4 ms·

I agree. I think Eric S. Raymond nails it: "While sloppy writing does not invariably mean sloppy thinking, we've generally found the correlation to be strong —

by hkolek 14y ago

I agree. I think Eric S. Raymond nails it: "While sloppy writing does not invariably mean sloppy thinking, we've generally found the correlation to be strong — and we have no use for sloppy thinkers." http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html

kahawe 14y ago
The 90s are unfortunately long gone but the one good thing about this is that we could finally just NOT give ESR and his populism any more attention...
- amackera 14y ago
  Could you expand a bit on this? I've read his Cathedral and Bazaar book, and quite enjoyed it. I didn't realize there was a whole context that I should be aware of.
  - StavrosK 14y ago
    I would also like this explained. I know very little about who ESR is.
    - pja 14y ago
      He was a "big deal" in the 90s, at least within hacker circles: wrote a lot of early free software / hacker culture reated stuff & was heavily involved in the rebranding of "free software" into a form that corporate suits could feel comfortable with ("open source") & selling that idea to a wider audience. See 'The Cathedral & the Bazaar' and other works. He wasn't all talk: way back in the day, he worked on emacs & authored fetchmail (fair warning: reading the fetchmail source will make your ears bleed.) More on his wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_S._Raymond http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_S._Raymond
    - excuse-me 14y ago
      ESR was an evil prophet of the dark god Cthullu. Reading sendmail configs out-loud are believed to summon the evil one and bring about his reign of terror. So fetchmail is the equivalent of an evil prayer wheel
  - RobAley 14y ago
    For some, it's his views on homaphobia[1], and his views on race[2]. For others, it's his lack of actually doing anything useful recently. [1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4157324 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4157324 [2] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3826846 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3826846 The link in [2] is dead, it previously linked to http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=4270 http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=4270
    - tomjen3 14y ago
      Also if you go back an read his early stuff during the Bush administration, you can add hater of muslims to the list as well.
rafitorres 14y ago
I agree with this. There's also a strong correlation between sloppy writing and poor reading comprehension. This is usually someone who never takes time to sit down and read edited or well-crafted prose. Why is good reading comprehension important for programmers? You see it often: A fellow programmer complains they can't find an answer to a particular problem they're having, even when the solution is staring them right in the face in the first Google search result. Good reading comprehension helps you help yourself.

by hkolek 14y ago

kahawe 14y ago

The 90s are unfortunately long gone but the one good thing about this is that we could finally just NOT give ESR and his populism any more attention...

amackera 14y ago
Could you expand a bit on this? I've read his Cathedral and Bazaar book, and quite enjoyed it. I didn't realize there was a whole context that I should be aware of.
- StavrosK 14y ago
  I would also like this explained. I know very little about who ESR is.
  - pja 14y ago
    He was a "big deal" in the 90s, at least within hacker circles: wrote a lot of early free software / hacker culture reated stuff & was heavily involved in the rebranding of "free software" into a form that corporate suits could feel comfortable with ("open source") & selling that idea to a wider audience. See 'The Cathedral & the Bazaar' and other works. He wasn't all talk: way back in the day, he worked on emacs & authored fetchmail (fair warning: reading the fetchmail source will make your ears bleed.) More on his wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_S._Raymond http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_S._Raymond
  - excuse-me 14y ago
    ESR was an evil prophet of the dark god Cthullu. Reading sendmail configs out-loud are believed to summon the evil one and bring about his reign of terror. So fetchmail is the equivalent of an evil prayer wheel
- RobAley 14y ago
  For some, it's his views on homaphobia[1], and his views on race[2]. For others, it's his lack of actually doing anything useful recently. [1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4157324 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4157324 [2] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3826846 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3826846 The link in [2] is dead, it previously linked to http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=4270 http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=4270
  - tomjen3 14y ago
    Also if you go back an read his early stuff during the Bush administration, you can add hater of muslims to the list as well.

rafitorres 14y ago

I agree with this. There's also a strong correlation between sloppy writing and poor reading comprehension. This is usually someone who never takes time to sit down and read edited or well-crafted prose. Why is good reading comprehension important for programmers? You see it often: A fellow programmer complains they can't find an answer to a particular problem they're having, even when the solution is staring them right in the face in the first Google search result. Good reading comprehension helps you help yourself.