It could be made worse by the anonymity that is common in our profession. There tend to be trolls in any online forum, regardless of interest, and much of the w

It could be made worse by the anonymity that is common in our profession. There tend to be trolls in any online forum, regardless of interest, and much of the work in our profession is done via similar channels. And let's be honest, many of us (myself included) grew up hacking on computers instead of developing typical social skills. Some people grow out of that, some people grow into jerks. edit: one further thought, there are many cases where someone is a brilliant programmer precisely because they're borderline mentally ill, and that causes some social problems as well.