Who Should I Thank? (1994) | Hacker News Reader

Who Should I Thank? (1994)

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22 pointsfoulas9 comments

Good god! Even if he wasn't serious you'd have to question his mental stability. It would be very foolish to be the student of someone who jokes about killing his students. Stay far away. I hope they take his guns away.

I thought this was relevant...from his twitter:

https://twitter.com/OlinShivers/status/299525596634030080

Agreed. Joking about this in 1994 is one thing, but in 2013 I think we have to take it as a shot across the bow. Maybe I'm being a bit sensitive due to the fact that I live near Isla Vista and had to walk by memorials for several weeks - CS kids for gods sake - but I just find this extremely F'd up.

I do like his use of vanilla html though.

Absolutely wrong. Don't speculate about things you know nothing about.

Shivers is beloved by his students. For example, Matt Might -- who I name because his blog is one of the most frequently frontpage'd on HN, and also because you have taken his website format as your own -- personally remarked to me many times about the quality of Shivers as PhD advisor. This occurred over the course of the two or so years that I was advised by Matt, and I have personally heard the same from many of his students since.

What's someone supposed to think after reading that? It was pretty explicit and doesn't sound like a joke. If I said that I was having thoughts about shooting my coworkers, I don't think it would be fair to accuse people of ignorant speculation for taking it seriously.

If your question is how do you evaluate whether something like this is a joke, then why don't we start by considering the fact that Shivers has a distinguished and successful track record of a capable scientist and advisor that spans more than a quarter century?

A joke written 20 years ago does not erase this.

It's really this simple folks: it is irresponsible to go around say dumb things like "never take this person as an advisor because they are literally crazy" when we have demonstrable proof that they are more than capable in that regard.

I don't see why this is controversial.

Crazy and technically capable are not mutually exclusive characteristics. Nor does a single joke somehow 'erase' a career. I'm not sure why you would think that.

I think it would be irresponsible to not consider a person's mental stability when considering them for any kind of relationship, particularly as an advisor.

Well that is interesting to know! You have to ask though, why someone would continue, even in 2013 to joke about mass murdering students? I'm separating that fact from his long and distinguished career. I dont know the man. Why does he find that funny, if that is his intent? If it's not, what is his intent?

For the record, Prof Might has been hugely influential in my decision to go to graduate school. You're lucky to have him as an advisor.

> You have to ask though, why someone would continue, even in 2013 to joke about mass murdering students?

But, as indicated in the title, it's from 1994 ….

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