You've got to understand that it is very hard for highly technically proficient people to be nice to everyone. For someone at Linus's level, a LOT of time is spent answering what seems like the worst kind of stupid questions.
This causes massive compassion fatigue. Take that into account, and it becomes clear that Linus is not as big an asshole as you think.
You've got to understand that it is very hard for highly technically proficient people to be nice to everyone.
Of all the arguments for being brusque on the web, this is the one I find most unappealing... as well as the least applicable for the matter at hand.
As far as I can tell, there's nothing about Linus' reply that depended on his admittedly high level of technical competence. In fact, it seemed he was saying "don't rely on being technically correct, consider the consequences"... in a way that got people's attention.
"I'm smart, so it's OK to an asshole" is about as shitty as an attitude as "not my problem, I'm just going by specs" - in fact, it's kind of similar. ... I bet all the up-voters thought they were the "highly technically proficient people"!
I doubt that it has anything to do with technical proficiency. People like Steve Wozniak, Alan Kay, Tim Berners-Lee don't have the reputation of being assholes.
In general, sites like Hackernews or Stackoverflow wouldn't work at all if smart people couldn't handle answering basic questions without being jerks.
I've known people compensate for their technical shortcomings by playing nice to everyone. Usually Engineers who happened to be Engineers by having a degree but don't have the passion for it and just in for the money. Asshole ones are the type that don't compromise just to be agreeable.
You may have posted this in the wrong subthread; we were talking about Steve Wozniak, who's toward the top of the the 99th percentile both for niceness and engineering passion, and Steve Jobs, who's such an asshole he cheated Woz on contracts they were doing together and whose engineering skills are limited to stuffing circuit boards.
"it is very hard for highly technically proficient people to be nice to everyone"
They being so damn smart does not give them the right to be condescending and insult people who can't keep up. So I'm not as smart as he is, does that make invaluable? Does that give him the right to call me stupid? What if I am doing my best? If my best try isn't really helping, then they should simply ignore me, not attack me. Nothing gives anybody the right to insult people.
It's the guiding principle here on HN: be civil. Just like others need to polish their technical abilities, being nice is something they should work on.
This causes massive compassion fatigue. Take that into account, and it becomes clear that Linus is not as big an asshole as you think.