[typicalrunt]

Getting a bit OT here but I have to wade in...

To people that know him personally, like myself, Zed is a great guy. My guess at the problem is that his Internet persona took on its own life outside of his control, and it grew to such a bad situation that it was better to not try to feed the trolls and simply put some distance from it.

In other words, let the haters hate and be ignored, stand up for yourself when appropriate, and the good people will eventually acknowledge good deeds and fight for you.

[sharkweek]

I don't personally know Zed outside of his internet persona -- and to me it seems like he's just a guy who doesn't put up with bullshit. I have never seen a time where he's an asshole to anyone who isn't shooting first. He puts his opinions out there and sometimes those cause flame wars so if you catch him in the middle of one those on Twitter then I can definitely see where people might think he's a jerk.

His tweets are comedy gold though -- highly recommend everyone follow him -- @zedshaw

edit: case and point -- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6806748

[davidw]

> doesn't put up with bullshit

Unless it's his own, like all the FUD he spread a number of years ago about Debian.

Even beyond that, I guess I'm just not a fan of the "it's ok to swear and be harsh to people as long as you happen to be right" approach to life.

Look at how kind and helpful someone like patio11 is, without all the vitriol.

[ericd]

Zed has to do Zed, just like Patrick does Patrick.

[niels_bom]

"case in point" :-)

[richardlblair]

TBH, when I first started following Zed on twitter I thought he was an ass, but recently something changed. Now he just seems like a normal dude who kills it.

[hoggle]

Have you ever seen him talk?

I love this video where he is debunking a lot of which is holy on HN - at BubbleConf 2012 "Peddling Luck": https://vimeo.com/53494258

[exodust]

"I'm totally an asshole"

At around 34:30 he admits he's an asshole in the context of slamming other people's work.

For him to jump all over the person above who called him a cock, well, all I can say is "pot-kettle-black, motherfucker".

"I'm busy helping people, you're busy calling me a cock".

Cry me a river. In the video he gets real busy rubbishing other people's work. Not to say he didn't have some very good, honest, refreshing points. But one needs to be able to take it if one dishes it out.

[moocowduckquack]

I'm not sure I get you, are you really complaining about motherfuckers refusing to accept cock after slamming assholes, or do I have the wrong end of the stick?

[marincounty]

He's brutally honest. I don't know why people can't be more honest. I knew 7 guys about 15 years ago who started a gaming company. It became successful. When ever they talk about their now defunct company--they all lie about how they became successful. The truth is one kid had a rich, lawyer father. The father set everything up, and completely funded the company for years. Everyone of them leaves that out of the "I want to get laid speech". It's nauseating. The ironic part of their company success story is they sold out too early, for 500K a piece. As far as I know, everyone of the 7 dudes is broke now--or just game testers. The two guys I kept in touch with thought they were going to make a fortune in the stock market with their big brains; they lost everything in 2008.