Node, Twitter, and Apologies

This comes down to "I wasn't being disrespectful and dismissive of your project, just this other project, so we're cool, right?"

I think we can all do better than this.

I agree that it sounds insincere, but I'm curious - what about his actions and his apology makes you think it was truly unintentional?

I'm all for assuming good will, but it's very difficult for me in this case.

>"I don't want to build my app on top of others' code who are at this level of understanding"

Seems intentionally condescending, not at all accidental.

>"Awesome, enjoy it. I'll be over here in not-node."

How is this completely dismissive, elitist snobbery not intentional?

That's like walking up to someone, punching them in the face, and then saying "oops, it was an 'accident'... sorry".

IMO his intention with these tweets is the core of the problem. To me, the intention quite obviously was to cultivate attention and elevate his status at the expense of humiliating another human being.

That's not something you can do by "accident". It's something you can regret[1] - but it's not like tripping over a curb, or rear ending a car because you were checking a text message.

[1]-http://programmingtour.blogspot.com/2013/01/im-sorry.html

This post seems like he is trying to apologise, but it's also coming out wrong and he is again accidentally being an asshole.

Node as a technology is misunderstood. Most people from other languages hear that it is javascript and scoff without digging into the source or into libuv. As a platform it made a certain set of trade offs which make it ideal for certain use cases, but some zealots see it as a panacea and suggest using node for everything under the sun. (Not to mention the general arrogance of some vocal proponents -- the core people are relatively humbled but there are a lot of pseudo rock star developers who think its cool to write JS instead of using the best tools for the job)

The traditional complaints of javascript were summarized well by Crockford http://www.crockford.com/javascript/javascript.html Most of the people writing in JavaScript are not programmers. They lack the training and discipline to write good programs. JavaScript has so much expressive power that they are able to do useful things in it, anyway. This has given JavaScript a reputation of being strictly for the amateurs, that it is not suitable for professional programming. This is simply not the case. reply

Being sorry that somebody else felt bad is the beginning of an apology. But it's not the end of one. You can't just say to yourself, "Well now I'll never make somebody feel bad again. Problem solved!"

When you fuck up and hurt someone, people don't want just to hear about you feeling bad. That's making it about your pain instead of theirs. It's asking for people to pat you on the head and tell you it's all ok. That's kinda weak.

They want to hear what you've learned, and why this won't be a problem again.