[aaronroyer]

The sentiment expressed by xkcd is great and very liberating to ponder. But I think this is off-topic.

The blog post states that "I seldom swear much outside of my slides" and "...it’s a crafted persona". Unless I am not understanding correctly, Holman is swearing as a calculated move which he believes allows him to communicate more effectively.

The xkcd comic decries filtering expression of one's personality out of fear. Here Holman is slightly altering (filtering?) his own personality, or at least creating a persona with subtle differences, for perceived benefit. You might even say he's doing it out of fear of mediocrity, though I would hesitate to put it so strongly.

People are talking about whether swearing actually is more effective, not about whether sensibilities have been offended. Holman is not the guy in the comic that others are trying to chastise for being himself.

[Swizec]

Most of what I've seen of this debate is people crying over the fact that Holman doesn't fit into their mold of what a talk at a conference should look like.

[dorian-graph]

Simply being different/edgy doesn't mean it's better or effective. Someone can attempt to be different and you know what, be wrong. It's neat they made an effort and I hope they would continue to experiment though there comes a time when we must abandon ideas we have come to love if it is shown there is a better way and it takes great character to sacrifice.

Another point is that just because something was discovered a long time ago doesn't mean it's out-of-date, irrelevant and should be replaced. Our society now seems obsessed with changing everything for the sake of changing and ignoring the foundations we have been given.