“This guy’s arrogance takes your breath away” – Jiahao Chen

Please don't negate people without giving practical and applicable feedback. I find hit-and-run negating really annoying and unhelpful, people. Use the minus responsibly. I WANT to learn from my mistakes without having to avoid controversial topics merely because they are controversial.

I'm in awe.

> I trust that the above quotation from my letter explains what EWD692was: a political pamphlet where a political pamphlet seemed needed, a need that, I hope unintentionally, you yourself had created . My guess is that,had you fully realized the glamour of the Turing Lecture — and the lack of independent judgement of most of its audience — you had made more sober use of your eloquence.

> You raise the question why I did not send you a copy. Of course I thought about it. I can reassure you that it was not that I was “too embarrassed”. Well, you have given the answer yourself on page 4 of your letter “Perhaps the worst aspects of an emotional attack such as EWD692 is that it tends to cut off technical communication.” Between you and me I definitely prefer to discuss on the technical level our subject deserves. So, why polute it by politics?

In the first paragraph he states the need for a political call to action to prevent the spread of the content of Backus's lecture to the completely helpless and ignorant Turing Lecture audience, and also attributes anyone's belief in it to - only - rhetorical power.

In the next paragraph (these were right next to each other!), he claims that HIS OWN PAMPHLET was based in rhetoric because it was necessary, quotes Backus's own point that Djikstra's very own tendencies tend to shut down technical communication in order to claim that Backus had created the reason for Djikstra not coming to him in the first place!

> I am unaware of any “need to be at stage center”, on the contrary! The vast majority of invitations to speak I decline, almost none of my writings are submitted for publication , and I send my writings to about a dozen people.Does that reveal “a need to be at stage center”? I don’t think so.

"I don't need to feel popular. I am constantly bombarded by people to come speak at events, but I usually decline them. See?"

> Furthermore you need not worry about my “ego”; in large parts of my country the “ego” is considered as a not very helpful invention of the psychologists and we very much doubt whether it makes much sense to have one: “explanation” of people’s behaviour in terms of it is seldomly inspiring.

"We don't have egos in the Netherlands," and therefore you must be under some misunderstanding created by your country's culture instead.

> thank you very much for your — also nice ! —

Remind you of anyone? Sad!

> You write “What am I to make of this response? “ Can I help you by stressing that I make a great difference be tween “your work” and “your Turing lecture”? I regard — and continue to regard — your work (as I wrote) as “a valid research effort”.

Your work is great! Except for the awful "Turing Lecture" you gave.

At the end of the last letter from Backus:

> In closing, let me say that I appreciated your last letter.

And that's all. Know where to pick your battles!