Re: Your Guru Paul Graham is getting trashed on Slashdot.

From: Tony Morris (not_at_telling.you)
Date: 07/31/04 

Date: Sat, 31 Jul 2004 06:42:08 GMT

I knew you'd take the bait :)

Roedy,
I can point out many unsubstantiated claims that you make. You have made it
clear before that you are "opinionated". This is fine. I care not to refute
every one of your points that I either know is blatantly incorrect, or as
more often is the case, presented ambiguously or with mild semantic errors
so as to be potentially misleading to a naive reader. There are several
reasons for this:
a) The number is vast, and I simply don't have the time - while I feel that
at the end of the day we both have the same objective (to inform those who
care to help themselves), I can only focus my efforts on places that I can
be guaranteed of contributing to this goal. I have two jobs, two kids, and
various hobbies to engage in - I seldom get to "play" on Usenet. I'm also
less passionate about achieving this objective that you are (I assume).
b) Quite often, your comments are simply misjudgements based on what I
believe is inexperience/lack of knowledge.

Let's take a simple example - your comments on XML. Some (all?) of these
comments are unsubstantiated - they are based on your (lack of?) experience
with the technology. I assume this because I have used XML in more
applications than I care to remember, and I believe I am informed enough to
know the difference between your claims and more substantiated claims. XML,
like any technology, has "goods" and "bads", but I think your comments are
"way off" i.e. they aren't of considerable value when you compare other more
substantiated comments regarding the technology. To me, they are analogous
to the C++ programmer saying "Java is slow" or something like that, which I
assume you've seen before, and understand how "unsubstantiated" this
statement is. Do you ever feel like answering to a somewhat foolish claim? I
know that I don't (maybe you're more tolerant of demonstrated naivety (I
refer to it as "shooting off at the mouth")).

To conclude, I have no ambition to pick out all the subtle
errors/ambiguities that you make (or more often, have made on your website),
and I certainly have no ambition to point out all your less subtle errors.
This is not a personal attack - more so, a requested expression of my
observations - please don't misconstrue it as such. I don't feel that either
of us would benefit if I (or anyone) were to "go around correcting you each
time you put your two cents in" - I assume you will help yourself to
learning material, just as I do.

Having said this, I appreciate your efforts towards what I would call a
common goal with your website. 

-- 
Tony Morris
http://xdweb.net/~dibblego/
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Your Guru Paul Graham is getting trashed on Slashdot.
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