A good example of this problem can be found in every article currently floating around HN about Uber's manslaughter of a pedestrian named Elaine.
You constantly see morons saying that since only one person has been killed, "the sample size is 1" even though any doofus with half a brain who thinks about it for half a minute will realize that obviously, one has more information if 1 pedestrian is killed after a billion miles than if 1 pedestrian is killed after a thousand miles. Gee.
Couldn't agree more with Zed. I'm fucking sick of having to work with these shitheads. It's not the ignorance that bothers me, that's totally okay and not something anyone should ever feel bad about. It's the goddammned hubris, thinking they know everything because they can wrap their tiny brains around an if, an else, and a while.
edit: Getting lots of comments that don't get that I'm humorously imitating Zed's tone, which is also meant humorously. Since there's several of them I assume that's on me. Sorry. Well, now with this edit you should know what I mean :)
A little less contempt and a bit more patience for what is likely to be unintentional ignorance would do you much good. Zed Shaw has to act like a toxic asshole to get their opinions heard - you don't have to, and if that derision leaks into your interactions, it's not surprising you find yourself surrounded by morons. Only a moron would continue to knowingly work with a toxic asshole.
I am sorry. TBQH you're kinda right that my tone is too acidic. That's what happens when you post on HN at 2am :) / :( My point, independent of its tone, still stands.
I do believe I made it clear I'm NOT referring to unintentional ignorance. I'm complaining about people who act like they know everything, not people who genuinely don't know some things and have the humility and common sense to not hide it.
I do have incredible contempt for people with this level of hubris and it hasn't been a problem for me so far and I don't intend to change. Since it has not been a problem in my career, I guess I come off pretty well in IRL social situations but we're just having a text-based misunderstanding or whatever.
I have absolutely no contempt for anyone who is willing to admit they don't know everything, and have spent plenty of time working on teams where everyone was great partly because they had that kind of humility.
FWIW, most people are decent like that. I'm just sick of even having to deal with that small egotistical minority. So is everyone else.
The specific thing I'm most sick of is people who think knowing how to program is some kind of genius level skill, so if you have it, you get to accordingly act like you are an expert at all manner of unrelated things too. News flash: programming is easy, it only seems hard for temporary social/historical reasons. Literacy also used to be a very, very special skill. Times change.
His title is threatening murder. I honestly can't comprehend why you would think he would know better than to use that word when he doesn't know better than to flippantly threaten (mass) murder in the title.
You are cussing at the wrong person. I use the eff word like other people use very and I use words like retarded as well. I was merely pointing out that it is rather silly to think an article with the aforementioned title is going to be politically correct.
In the future, please identify more accurately the individual that merits your outrage.
Edit: Sorry some of your stuff got flagged to death. Humor is hard on the internet and often not welcome on HN as it is insubstantive. FWIW, I felt like you got the ironic humor in my replies to you and I wasn't offended by anything you said. I thought you were goofing back.
You constantly see morons saying that since only one person has been killed, "the sample size is 1" even though any doofus with half a brain who thinks about it for half a minute will realize that obviously, one has more information if 1 pedestrian is killed after a billion miles than if 1 pedestrian is killed after a thousand miles. Gee.
Couldn't agree more with Zed. I'm fucking sick of having to work with these shitheads. It's not the ignorance that bothers me, that's totally okay and not something anyone should ever feel bad about. It's the goddammned hubris, thinking they know everything because they can wrap their tiny brains around an if, an else, and a while.
edit: Getting lots of comments that don't get that I'm humorously imitating Zed's tone, which is also meant humorously. Since there's several of them I assume that's on me. Sorry. Well, now with this edit you should know what I mean :)