Comments on: Ayn’s Old Prejudicial

By: clew

clew — Wed, 12 Nov 2003 21:41:07 +0000

It isn’t that engineers are particularly prone to it; it’s that engineers and non-engineers are susceptible to different styles of self-delusion, and we tend to notice most the delusions of people who are least like us. MDs, for instance, have their own oddities, starting with the famous (maybe necessary) megalomania of surgeons.

By: --kip

--kip — Wed, 12 Nov 2003 15:14:18 +0000

Neil—thanks for the Wayback link. But I’ve been getting that “your request failed to connect with our databases” error message every time I’ve tried to use them in the past few months, which, admittedly, is not all that terribly often, but still: bitten every time, one becomes shy enough not to think of using it much any more. Or words to that effect.

By: john b

john b — Wed, 12 Nov 2003 14:04:53 +0000

Why am I suddenly thinking of Steven den Beste? Coincidence, I’m sure.

By: Martin Wisse

Martin Wisse — Wed, 12 Nov 2003 11:18:58 +0000

Engineer’s disease: where just because someone is a (self-proclaimed) expert in field, they think this makes them automatic experts on anything else. Usually people intelligent enough to see through “lies-to-children” explenations, but not intelligent enough to understand there’s more to their new area of expertise than that. For soem reason, engineers are particularly susceptible to it.

By: OldTimer

OldTimer — Wed, 12 Nov 2003 02:24:24 +0000

While he has done some reasonable pieces on technical-culture subjects (e.g. his advice on how to ask good questions on a Usenet group; a bit wordy, but solid advice) it’s long been known in computer geek circles that on anything political ESR deals from a deck with few cards, and those ragged.

By: Shai

Shai — Tue, 11 Nov 2003 23:58:48 +0000

Right, I checked. As a board member he had to hold on to his stock for six months, and by that point his stock simply wasnt worth that much. But after a bit of web browsing I suppose I can concede that he actually believed what he was saying. he argued in 2001 “Economic slumps are actually good – they make free software look more attractive” in an article supporting the company, after 20% layoffs. pretty hilarious, given VA sold software support and overpriced generic hardware, both businesses where there are few barriers to entry. (I couldn’t find exactly how long he waited after the 6 months was up to unload his stock, if he ever did)

By: neil

neil — Tue, 11 Nov 2003 23:18:03 +0000

Kip, the Internet Archive purports to have an archived copy of The Antimanifesto. (Note: Right now their server is down, so the link may not work after all)

By: --kip

--kip — Tue, 11 Nov 2003 18:21:32 +0000

The Antimanifesto (written in response to the Anti-Idiotarian Manifesto) seems to have disappeared, so I'll go the low route and point out via this not-entirely-safe-for-work link that Eric Raymond is a tit man. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

By: dsquared

dsquared — Tue, 11 Nov 2003 16:48:57 +0000

I don’t think that’s strictly fair; as far as I’m aware, Raymond held onto his stock all the way down and thus didn’t benefit from the boom anything like as much as he thought he was going to.

By: Shai

Shai — Tue, 11 Nov 2003 16:31:57 +0000

Way back in high school (1998 or so) I would argue with that dude on slashdot about his way overoptimistic thoughts about the potential market (the real market, not the pretend market) for red hat, va linux, and open source in general, based entirely on my understanding of basic economics, but he apparently thought OSS belonged in some magical fairy land where economics did not apply, perhaps because he was lining up to take money via the stock market from all the idiots jumping on the bandwagon.

By: Little Boy

Little Boy — Tue, 11 Nov 2003 14:56:05 +0000

The Emperor has no clothes: http://esr.1accesshost.com/

By: Charles Stewart

Charles Stewart — Tue, 11 Nov 2003 14:31:33 +0000

Patrick: It sounds unforgettable, and of course gun nuts never forget.

By: Patrick Nielsen Hayden

Patrick Nielsen Hayden — Tue, 11 Nov 2003 13:27:44 +0000

In fairness I should note that the one time I needed help with a piece of open-source software for which he was the maintainer (fetchmail, in fact), he was forthcoming, helpful, and kind. Despite the fact that a good ten years earlier, I had been rather rude to him on a GEnie discussion board, as I’m sure he must have remembered.

By: Nasi Lemak

Nasi Lemak — Tue, 11 Nov 2003 11:46:37 +0000

He has always been a bit of a curate’s egg but NTK are deeply ungenerous… I thought there was some social insight in the catheter and the bizarre, though not in his later essays on the anthropology of software production. You can see it now on the new A+D blog: there is quite a sane piece on David Frum preceded by two barking pieces on why we should start calling the “Baathist holdouts” “werewolves” – because of course that will dehumanize them and make them less scary, or something. Woof.

By: Charles Stewart

Charles Stewart — Tue, 11 Nov 2003 10:30:59 +0000

Is it embarassing to admit to habitually posting comments to “Armed and Dangerous”? He’s extreme, but I confess to having a soft spot for ESR, and, at his best, he can write rather well.