

Oh, you snarky developers! - cte
http://blog.logicalrand.com/2008/9/11/oh-you-snarky-developers

======
blogimus
But Chris, you left us hanging at the end your your blog entry. What was your
reply? It was snarky, right?

~~~
cte
Haha :) I ended up writing the blog entry, and by the time I was done, my
snarky inspiration had somehow transformed into something resembling
diplomacy.

------
ojbyrne
I enjoyed that article, and its important to note that "snark" has a long and
generally successful history. They used to call it "wit" and many writers
built a career around it. In the workplace, wit is often a way to rail against
pointless mind-numbing hierarchies without actually assaulting anyone ;-)

~~~
gojomo
snark ≠ wit

snark includes a snide/smug element; wit rarely does

~~~
ojbyrne
Well, rarely ≠ never, but I just thought I'd go look for some examples -
decided Oscar Wilde quotes would be a good place to start

 _A man can be happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her._

 _A true friend stabs you in the front._

 _All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling._

 _Ambition is the last refuge of the failure._

Just as examples. Admittedly I'm cherry-picking, but I'm 100% convinced that
smugness or a sense of self-superiority is integral to "wit."

~~~
gojomo
Whether any of those quotes are _snide_ depends on the context: especially
whether they were directed against someone in particular.

Further: wit is often self-deprecating (and some of those Wildisms may have
been offered in that spirit), while snark hardly ever is.

