I think it was pretty classy of Ben not to comment on some of the hateful comments in the commit that, instead of adding to discussion or trying to prevent future error, simply were personal attacks at him.
I can't say I'm surprised though. bnoordhuis lacks tact; poke other people enough and eventually you'll get an angry mob. The parent article talks about learning, but glosses over that bnoordhuis' behaviour that set this all off isn't unusual for him. Learning? No. Class? No.
That said, this is a tempest in a teacup. bnoordhuis upsets someone again, news at 11.
Uhm, Ben lacks tact? Says who? I think you guys are maybe confusing the tough Dutch culture as being insensitive to some hot issues. Ben is an extremely smart, extremely prolific programmer. When you're out and about like him you're bound to get yourself tripped somewhere along the way.
As an aside, while Joyent has exposed itself as being extremely unprofessional and prone to jumping on the gun, I'm saddened that Strongloop is quick to say things like "If Ben can’t learn, we’ll fire him" too ... and this is just after all of this happened. My goodness people, stop sitting on your high chairs and speculating firings, it's not a fucking game.
It's a general observation I've developed watching node development on occasion. I don't even follow it that closely, but a disproportionate amount of negativity seems to stem from bnoordhuis; that's why I remember him specifically.
Okay, it could be just me, but I've heard other people subsequently complain about his behaviour too.
I think you guys are maybe confusing the tough Dutch culture as being insensitive to some hot issues.
The Netherlands isn't the world, and only a tiny percentage of developers come from there. As the blog post says, bnoordhuis needs to learn, but so far he has not. Furthermore, regardless of the origins of his behaviour, it's still negative.
Way to go making a comment about a culture and tradition you are unfamiliar with based upon a newspaper article that doesn't go into the history behind said tradition!
Linus for example isn't the nicest guy in town either. I know a few devs who are parsecs ahead of me, in knowledge and/or productivity. None of them could qualify as a nice and polite person. May be observation bias, but I see a connection here.
I think that's an example of sample bias. There are many excellent developers who are nice too, you just don't hear as much about them because they're not causing drama. Again.
All the great developers I've worked with have been fantastic people too. Maybe I've just been lucky.
As a counterpoint in the node community: isaacs is pleasant, amazingly patient, and an excellent developer.
