4 ms·

I'm no expert, but I suspect that a pattern of lashing out against opponents during in a high stakes business dispute would not typically be considered clinical

I'm no expert, but I suspect that a pattern of lashing out against opponents during in a high stakes business dispute would not typically be considered clinically significant on its own. I don't know how you or others in this thread are intending to use terms like "mental illness" or "mental health issues," but generally I don't think they're appropriate unless you're talking about problems where there's evidence of an underlying dysfunction and no other obvious immediate cause (like exhaustion). Of course, some may argue it's not appropriate to diagnose public figures either way.

chii 21d ago
I dont know any clinical information, but some (many, in fact) people assume mental illness when someone behaves in such a way that they believe their world view and mental model is absolute and fight to the last tooth and nail against any opposing view points (to the detriment of their own well being and others).
- voakbasda 21d ago
  Well then, the founding fathers of the United States were all mentally ill. All of the greatest scientific minds that made breakthroughs in their field are mentally ill.
  - lioeters 21d ago
    Sane people adapt themselves to the world. The insane ones persist in trying to adapt the world to themselves. Therefore all progress depends on the mentally abnormal. (Parody of a famous quote about "unreasonable man".)
    - jasomill 21d ago
      "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." — George Bernard Shaw, Maxims for Revolutionists[1] https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/26107/pg26107-images.html#id00151 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/26107/pg26107-images.ht...
      - chii 21d ago
        and people misuse this quote to justify unreasonable behaviour that does not progress the world.
  - chii 21d ago
    > the greatest scientific minds if one has a scientific mind, they will accept evidence which may be contrary to their personal views. If you dont, you cannot be said to have a scientific mind, let alone greatest. > founding fathers of the United States that may in fact, be the case, but chances are someone today of similar disposition would not be able to do the same.
    - ceejayoz 21d ago
      > if one has a scientific mind, they will accept evidence which may be contrary to their personal views. If you dont, you cannot be said to have a scientific mind, let alone greatest. Then no one has a scientific mind. It's a spectrum, not a binary. Newton was into alchemy. Watson got into race pseudoscience. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_disease https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_disease has a nice long list.
photomatt 21d ago
If you win (like Jobs against Flash/Adobe) you're a hero, if you lose people trash your name. A lot of stupid people are swayed by the bots paid by the dark PR firms that PE engages to astroturf things and two-brain-cell "technical" YouTubers that have never optimized milliseconds off code that runs billions of times a day, never set up a rack that terabits flow through...
- mthoms 21d ago
  [flagged]
  - JumpCrisscross 20d ago
    > You're a dinosaur Why is this necessary?!
    - mthoms 20d ago
      Dinosaur is often used to describe someone who has grown out-of-touch with their industry. It aptly describes the technical skills Matt was just breathlessly boasting about. In case you missed it, Matt's boast was part of his attack on people like me who disagree with him ("stupid people swayed by bots") and his direct personal attack on YouTuber Theo Browne, whom he described as having "two brain cells". In the context Matt established himself, "dinosaur" is pretty tame, no? Yes, two wrongs don't make a right. I'll tone it down. But if you're going to police the comments, kindly consider applying the policing equally. Just because someone is a quasi-famous tech celebrity, it shouldn't give their behaviour a pass. Edit: I just noticed that elsewhere in this thread he calls his opponents (myself included) "idiots", yet there's no policing on that comment. Apparently, it's only "dinosaur" that crosses your red line.
      - JumpCrisscross 20d ago
        > yet there's no policing on that comment I flagged his comment. I think your comment was stronger without the personal insult. So I engaged.
smuhakg 20d ago
It's not the pattern, it's the fact he suddenly had a change in personality in 2024 causing him to destroy the community he created for no obvious reason. Then ignored basically everyone around him and doomspiralled until he got fired. Not just the WPEngine stuff, but he went on a sabbatical at the start of 2024, got in a fight with the trans community (death sentence in tech), starts posting to WPDrama's subreddit asking what drama he should start in 2025, randomly fires people on the company Slack, etc. I've never seen someone gleefully torch their relationships and career like this unless they were undergoing a mental health crisis.

chii 21d ago

I dont know any clinical information, but some (many, in fact) people assume mental illness when someone behaves in such a way that they believe their world view and mental model is absolute and fight to the last tooth and nail against any opposing view points (to the detriment of their own well being and others).

voakbasda 21d ago
Well then, the founding fathers of the United States were all mentally ill. All of the greatest scientific minds that made breakthroughs in their field are mentally ill.
- lioeters 21d ago
  Sane people adapt themselves to the world. The insane ones persist in trying to adapt the world to themselves. Therefore all progress depends on the mentally abnormal. (Parody of a famous quote about "unreasonable man".)
  - jasomill 21d ago
    "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." — George Bernard Shaw, Maxims for Revolutionists[1] https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/26107/pg26107-images.html#id00151 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/26107/pg26107-images.ht...
    - chii 21d ago
      and people misuse this quote to justify unreasonable behaviour that does not progress the world.
- chii 21d ago
  > the greatest scientific minds if one has a scientific mind, they will accept evidence which may be contrary to their personal views. If you dont, you cannot be said to have a scientific mind, let alone greatest. > founding fathers of the United States that may in fact, be the case, but chances are someone today of similar disposition would not be able to do the same.
  - ceejayoz 21d ago
    > if one has a scientific mind, they will accept evidence which may be contrary to their personal views. If you dont, you cannot be said to have a scientific mind, let alone greatest. Then no one has a scientific mind. It's a spectrum, not a binary. Newton was into alchemy. Watson got into race pseudoscience. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_disease https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_disease has a nice long list.

photomatt 21d ago

If you win (like Jobs against Flash/Adobe) you're a hero, if you lose people trash your name. A lot of stupid people are swayed by the bots paid by the dark PR firms that PE engages to astroturf things and two-brain-cell "technical" YouTubers that have never optimized milliseconds off code that runs billions of times a day, never set up a rack that terabits flow through...

mthoms 21d ago
[flagged]
- JumpCrisscross 20d ago
  > You're a dinosaur Why is this necessary?!
  - mthoms 20d ago
    Dinosaur is often used to describe someone who has grown out-of-touch with their industry. It aptly describes the technical skills Matt was just breathlessly boasting about. In case you missed it, Matt's boast was part of his attack on people like me who disagree with him ("stupid people swayed by bots") and his direct personal attack on YouTuber Theo Browne, whom he described as having "two brain cells". In the context Matt established himself, "dinosaur" is pretty tame, no? Yes, two wrongs don't make a right. I'll tone it down. But if you're going to police the comments, kindly consider applying the policing equally. Just because someone is a quasi-famous tech celebrity, it shouldn't give their behaviour a pass. Edit: I just noticed that elsewhere in this thread he calls his opponents (myself included) "idiots", yet there's no policing on that comment. Apparently, it's only "dinosaur" that crosses your red line.
    - JumpCrisscross 20d ago
      > yet there's no policing on that comment I flagged his comment. I think your comment was stronger without the personal insult. So I engaged.

smuhakg 20d ago

It's not the pattern, it's the fact he suddenly had a change in personality in 2024 causing him to destroy the community he created for no obvious reason. Then ignored basically everyone around him and doomspiralled until he got fired. Not just the WPEngine stuff, but he went on a sabbatical at the start of 2024, got in a fight with the trans community (death sentence in tech), starts posting to WPDrama's subreddit asking what drama he should start in 2025, randomly fires people on the company Slack, etc. I've never seen someone gleefully torch their relationships and career like this unless they were undergoing a mental health crisis.