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Comment by geofft | Hacker News Reader

I think none of them are deserving of the name "non-technical;" that's all I'm saying about them. Bill Gates, Hans Reiser, Jonathan Coulton, and Dread Pirate Roberts are all on the same "level".

I would suggest, though, that you think about why ESR is such a common name to you. He's a genius at self-marketing, and he's managed to set himself up as the arbiter of hacker culture while mostly just writing things about other people's code. Shanley is also a genius at self-marketing: although her goals are very different, it's useful for her political goals for you to think of her the way you do. If all you think of either of them is their online personas, you're being played, and they're winning.

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I'm having trouble telling if you're trolling or not, a musician and a convicted murderer are on the same level as Bill Gates? You dismiss ESR because he doesn't show up in git history that only goes back to 2005?

I've never heard of Shanley until today and glancing through what she does it's inflammatory political theater.

> it's useful for her political goals for you to think of her the way you do

I dislike her because people who are that combative make me uncomfortable, not because I can't handle what she says. It's a shame people like her have degraded our culture to a point where having people dislike you is a sign that you're saying something worthwhile.

Really, a recent post is:

> i hate when people make shitty acoustic covers of pop songs just fucking stop you suck at guitar and singing

That's just abusive. But if I don't like her it's a good thing? I'm at a loss, this is like junior high all over again.

Like I said earlier, I can't tell if you're trolling or not.

You're rhe one who brought up levels. All I am claiming is that the comment earlier stating that Adria and Shanley are "non-technical" is wrong. I'm not making a motal or quality judgment about anyone, just calling all these people technical people. (And so I'm sorta confused why you are debating this point if you don't know who Shanley' is / what her technical qualifications are, but apparently we were debating different points and talking past each other.) Let me know how I could be more clear!

Well, I'm not the one who brough up levels, but ok. Post mortem: That's a tricky tactic you used and I fell for it. All I was saying is ESR is most definitely a technical person, I didn't realize that by extension I was defining your twitter heros as also technical.

Honestly I don't care if these twitter personalities are "technical" or not. We're not talking about Adria and Shanley because of their technical ideas, or their ideas about technology because as far as I know they have none. They're famous for their social activism.

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