Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ginosko!ctrsol!cica!iuvax!rutgers!noao!arizona!gudeman
From: gudeman@arizona.edu (David Gudeman)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Non-professional programmers (was: Which language to teach first?)
Message-ID: <13433@megaron.arizona.edu>
Date: 23 Aug 89 09:33:16 GMT
Organization: U of Arizona CS Dept, Tucson
Lines: 37

In article  <14577@bfmny0.UUCP> tneff@bfmny0.UUCP (Tom Neff) writes:
>Koldinger's point is correct, Gudeman's is actually arrogant.

Several responses suggest themselves:

(1) I can't be arrogant since I don't have any faults.

(2) Gee, I didn't know expressing an opinion was a sign of arrogance.

(3) It's been so long since I was active on the net, that I forgot
about the recreational flamers.  You know, the people who lie in wait
for an incautious wording so they can assume the worst possible
reading and insult you for it.

>Every good engineer understands elegance of design.

I wasn't talking about engineers when I mentioned people who couldn't
understand elegance, I was talking about students in classes I taught.
If you had read the article with the assumption that I was a
reasonable person, I believe you would have understood this.  Why
don't you try an expirement?  Next time you read an article that you
think is arrogant, stupid, or insulting; take a step back back and try
reading as though it was written by a respected friend of yours.  You
might be surprised at how the meaning changes.

For example, take response (1) above.  Did you read it as a joke?  If
not, you should really rethink your attitude of people in general.
Sure, I _could_ really be so obnoxiously arrogant as to have meant it,
but why would you want to think that about me?  Wouldn't life be more
pleasant if you gave people the benifit of the doubt and always assume
they are reasonable whenever there is no compelling evidence
otherwise?
-- 
					David Gudeman
Department of Computer Science
The University of Arizona        gudeman@arizona.edu
Tucson, AZ 85721                 {allegra,cmcl2,ihnp4,noao}!arizona!gudeman