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Edit: the thing I loved most about him was that he was brilliant but also kind. A living breathing rebuttal to the idea that it’s alright to be an asshole in this field if you’re smart enough.
There is no excuse in this world for meanness.
Years ago I emailed Joe Armstrong about concurrency stuff. I had no idea about anything like multithreaded programming or distributed systems or anything like that, but I had read Erlang was a language well-suited for that stuff. I sent an email asking some seriously noobey questions about concurrency (about why mutation was bad, what made the Actor model work, etc), and instead of a response like "Go read a book and…
Same. Him and I discussed distributed storage. Well detailed response from him that sent me reading for days. I aspire to be like him.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Please don't do this sort of thing. It's crass and it's wrong besides.
It’s not crass to honor Joe’s legacy. It’s on topic and relevant.
Stop.
Years ago I emailed Joe Armstrong about concurrency stuff. I had no idea about anything like multithreaded programming or distributed systems or anything like that, but I had read Erlang was a language well-suited for that stuff. I sent an email asking some seriously noobey questions about concurrency (about why mutation was bad, what made the Actor model work, etc), and instead of a response like "Go read a book and…
And RIP indeed.
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I was able to find his reply. The stuff after the `>` is him quoting me. There's another part to this somewhere, but I'll have to keep looking. > Hello! > I am learning Erlang and really liking it. Great > I am finding myself really liking the immutability in regards to being able to reason about my code, but that leaves me with a probably easy question: why does immutability make concurrency easier? Tricky I guess i…
Ah, found the email he responded to a year later. As before, the stuff after the > is him quoting me. ---------------------------------------- > Hello! > > Just under a year ago I send you a message asking you about multi-process computing and the like. You gave me a long, detailed email that not only answered my questions, but also explained in pretty-decent detail. > > I was so impressed by that email that I actual…
I absolutely love this quote
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Ah, found the email he responded to a year later. As before, the stuff after the > is him quoting me. ---------------------------------------- > Hello! > > Just under a year ago I send you a message asking you about multi-process computing and the like. You gave me a long, detailed email that not only answered my questions, but also explained in pretty-decent detail. > > I was so impressed by that email that I actual…
> Well every body is a random guy until you share stories. I absolutely love this quote
To those with whom I share the morbid curiosity about how it happened, I'd like to mention a movie ending that came to mind. Griever: Tell me how he died. Friend: I will tell you how he lived.
Years ago I emailed Joe Armstrong about concurrency stuff. I had no idea about anything like multithreaded programming or distributed systems or anything like that, but I had read Erlang was a language well-suited for that stuff. I sent an email asking some seriously noobey questions about concurrency (about why mutation was bad, what made the Actor model work, etc), and instead of a response like "Go read a book and…
It occurs to me that this is one fundamental commonality across great people that includes likes of Einstein to Feynman to Knuth to Erdos. They can sense the curiosity of a person regardless of their background or expertise and cannot prevent themselves from infecting you with the fundamental joy of discovering nature's secrets. Passion is something they feel obligated to spread even if you are just a gardner or a co…
I completely agree with your thesis. I was a recent college dropout, and Joe's enthusiasm about Erlang, distributed programming, and pretty much everything else about computers was really a good springboard for self-education.
[1] https://medium.com/@tombert/rip-joe-armstrong-b6252ff93654