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Comment by dill_day | Hacker News Reader

I didn't finish it. I browsed the author's website a little. He seems grossly arrogant.

I thought so too, then I checked who the author was, and realized I had already read a book of his: http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/

When I read the book, his personality some times bothered me, but the book had enough insight that it was worth my time. I felt the same with this essay.

I found it hilarious that he had to mention the fact that he had a "baseline of 12 languages" twice.

  import humility

First experience with ESR?

Check out the cathedral and the bazaar.

http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral...

That's crap. Check out his sex tips for geeks!

http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/sextips/

The Cathy lady he asks for opinions is his wife. Not totally unbiased, then.

Not to mention that one person's opinion is not data. The best way to find out what your partner wants is either to ask or experiment. Much better than listening to ESR. :)

At least he praises every good work, not just his. He is quick to praise PG (check out his Software page, he implemented a filter) and anybody else who has done something cool...including himself.

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