[laserbeam]

> But I'm glad he stayed honest to himself instead and didn't have a PR team ghostwrite his thoughts.

If there's one thing I learned in this debacle is "I should spend 1-2 days and send to a close friend before hitting publish on a firey reply." The way Andrew rephrased the closing section is the kind of thing I should publish on the first edit in similar scenarios.

[iamflimflam1]

Early on in my career I wrote a highly critical email - I asked a coworker for his opinion before I sent.

He said “there’s just one thing that would improve this” and hit the delete button.

That intervention saved me, and everyone I was working with, from a lot of unnecessary stress.

Venting is great - get it out of your system. Then take a deep breath, go for a walk, and then decide what to do.

[Rendello]

Abraham Lincoln used to write angry letters and stow them away, unsigned and unsent [1]. The book "How to Win Friends and Influence People" claims he stopped harshly criticizing people publicly after being challenged to a duel [2] by a government official he had attacked anonymously in the press.

1. https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/lincolns-...

2. https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/abraham-lincolns...

[preg_match]

The problem is if everyone does this then nothing gets done and everything burns down and everyone dies. Okay, a little hyperbolic.

But assholes know how to get things done, they just do. If everyone becomes a bystander, then 100% of all decisions will be made by the absolute bottom of the barrel of humanity. I'm talking sub-human morally inept fundamentally evil people.

We're already kinda there, and maybe my phrasing here is harsh, but it's true. We've all seen what happens when you let the mad king be mad. It might be pleasant and peaceful for a while, but ultimately it is "your problem". Eventually the madness touches YOU, and now what?

[bourbonproof]

Unlikely a useful lesson here. If it would have been written as "political correct" version up to the point of not calling Jarred out at all would have missed the core message. The fact that it was written blunt is the reason it went viral.

[bob001]

Viral is not an inherently good thing unless you're an influencer. Not all publicity is good publicity.

[dakolli]

uhhh, that's not how the how that figure speech goes. There's a reason why people say all publicity is good publicity, and you can't just flip that to fit your perspective.

[adwn]

People repeat that figure of speech because it's a meme (in the original sense of the word), not because it's unconditionally true.

[dakolli]

No, they repeat it because it's literally true.

[adwn]

Let me guess: you know that it's literally true because everyone repeats it, right?

[stingraycharles]

I also don’t really like his closing section, it has a big “sorry but not sorry” feeling to it.

[rafterydj]

I read that as him beginning the healing stages. Acknowledging his flaws as soon as he could even if he couldn't change what he already said - because that post did blow up, if he had taken the whole thing down it may have just exacerbated things.

[tonypace]

I think if the last decade has taught us anything, its that decorum has zero to negative value in public communication. People pay attention to drama, and you need attention to be heard. When the penalty for rudeness is gone, just go for contention.

[bob001]

> penalty for rudeness is gone

I assume Andrew's goal isn't to be a viral influencer but to achieve some type of long term impact or goal. Programmers don't pick languages based on maximal vitriol and if anything do the opposite.