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He comes across like that because he was. From him you always get these profound wisdoms mixed with denigrating statements, a lot of times about mental capacity
by elteto 2y ago
He comes across like that because he was. From him you always get these profound wisdoms mixed with denigrating statements, a lot of times about mental capacity. He was an asshole, a brilliant one, but an asshole.
I, by the way, don’t celebrate him as other people do. I don’t think there’s ever an excuse for anyone to behave like that, no matter how brilliant.
- vacuity 2y agoIt's hard to make people view both intelligence and arrogance (or other bad traits) in hand. And neither does society encourage benevolence. I think Dijkstra was right about many things, but I can take those views and choose to act in certain ways, not just parrot Dijkstra as an all-knowing god. Although I will be the first to say that I am too arrogant for my own good. But still. Don't be like me or like Dijkstra, I guess.
- hnfong 2y agoI think some people mistake arrogance as wisdom. It's more prevalent in these days of social media where people mistake strong words and loud proclamation for truth, but I suspect similar things have been happening on a smaller scale in the past.
- magicalhippo 2y agoAgain, I've not read all of his works, but based on the ones I have, such as this, I wouldn't say brilliant. In just this piece alone he makes several objectively false and/or narrow-minded statements, even back when he wrote it. Not saying he wasn't smart, but being so narrow-minded precludes brilliance in my view. So yeah, I've never really understood the fame he got either.