[HeyLaughingBoy]

If you'll listen to another old guy who wouldn't mind a nap:

There's a world of difference between having a fake personality and learning to politely and gracefully interact with others even when you really don't want to. Those skills are far, far more important than anything technical you will learn in your CS classes.

[axotty]

Yes, and then there's that sweet spot you find when you're walking the fine line between being polite and being patronizing. That perfectly guised condescension with a rich aroma of political correctness that still delivers the intentional underlying message.

That's the real skill to master, especially amongst the smug closeted egomaniacs in the programming world. But as a normally blunt person, it all seems a little silly(and very insincere) to me.

[irishcoffee]

You ever read The Catcher in the Rye?

I'd suggest reading it. The protagonist struggles with "fake" throughout the whole book. Might give you some perspective.

Theres nothing wrong with being a bit blunt and direct, ageism is well beyond that threshold.

[axotty]

Yes, I've read it. It's not a very good book, in my opinion.

The end of your second point fails to address the comment you responded to, I was addressing an entirely separate issue about how this community (and to a lesser degree, the programming community) chooses to communicate. Specifically, how it fails to actually remove flaming, trolling, rudeness, and arrogance. It merely wraps these things nicely in pseudo intellectual packages.

Anyways, I wasn't defending my (purely spiteful) "ageist" comment, nor do I intend to. Although, I keep getting baited to address it, so here I am. Rest assured though, while I may never transform into a different gender or race, I will certainly age. I'm sure one day, when I'm older, someone on the internet will say a rude, politically incorrect comment towards me, and I shall weep with regret and understanding.