> I have a right to an emotional reaction to your content and a right to describe it, especially if the reaction is grounded in objective technical reality
... because while you have rights, being a person who participates in a civilized society means you also have responsibilities, and one of those responsibilities is to interact with people in ways that are appropriate to the situation.
And "appropriate to the situation" changes depending on the nature of the situation. The less serious the situation, the less appropriate a volcanic reaction becomes. Nobody's going to disapprove of you if you start screaming at an airline pilot who you see snorting coke on his way to the plane. But lots of people will disapprove of you if you lay down the same reaction on some poor kid behind the counter at McDonald's because he forgot your French fries.
In the case of this review, I would say tptacek's tone is appropriate, because security is Serious Business (as we should all know, especially after last week); getting it wrong can result in people getting robbed or even killed. So if you're going to put yourself forward as a teacher of crypto, and you're teaching people things that aren't true, you're doing real damage and should be glad a good yelling-at is the worst punishment you have to suffer. But that doesn't mean that the same tone would be appropriate if taken with the kid on the bus, because "annoyingly oblivious" is a long chalk from "could get people killed."
I never said what my tone was on the bus -- it was blunt and matter of fact. My observation was about the young man's reaction. I take exception to your post, as it suggests I said something I didn't.
My point was more about the way you leapt from tptacek's review of the crypto book to the incident on the bus, which implies that they're comparable situations, when really they're not. Not all cluelessness is equal.
> I take exception to your post
I demand satisfaction! Pistols at dawn, my good fellow! Pistols at dawn!
My point was more about the way you leapt from tptacek's review of the crypto book to the incident on the bus, which implies that they're comparable situations, when really they're not.
Ugh. My point in the previous comment -- for the second time -- is not that I'm not comparing the situations. I'm comparing the reactions. Not all cluelessness is equal, and for the second time I never said that! However, oversensitivity to criticism due to a prioritization of feelings/ego generalizes nicely across both situations.
I demand satisfaction! Pistols at dawn, my good fellow! Pistols at dawn!
I only take challenges from people with basic literacy and reading comprehension. Your comments only demonstrate the former, my good fellow. (Or, if this is the 2nd iteration of a deliberate troll through the subtle placing of words in another's mouth, I'll merely comment that I'd be a bit surprised if someone actually thinks this is clever, and note that this would disqualify a challenger though insufficient intellectual integrity.)
> I have a right to an emotional reaction to your content and a right to describe it, especially if the reaction is grounded in objective technical reality
... because while you have rights, being a person who participates in a civilized society means you also have responsibilities, and one of those responsibilities is to interact with people in ways that are appropriate to the situation.
And "appropriate to the situation" changes depending on the nature of the situation. The less serious the situation, the less appropriate a volcanic reaction becomes. Nobody's going to disapprove of you if you start screaming at an airline pilot who you see snorting coke on his way to the plane. But lots of people will disapprove of you if you lay down the same reaction on some poor kid behind the counter at McDonald's because he forgot your French fries.
In the case of this review, I would say tptacek's tone is appropriate, because security is Serious Business (as we should all know, especially after last week); getting it wrong can result in people getting robbed or even killed. So if you're going to put yourself forward as a teacher of crypto, and you're teaching people things that aren't true, you're doing real damage and should be glad a good yelling-at is the worst punishment you have to suffer. But that doesn't mean that the same tone would be appropriate if taken with the kid on the bus, because "annoyingly oblivious" is a long chalk from "could get people killed."