Wolfram definitely has a big ego. It makes him less likeable but none of it just...

colanderman · on Dec 6, 2021

Why do you think the GP was "trying to humiliate" Wolfram?

It's possible to both like OSS, and not want to open-source a particular work for legitimate reasons.

Mr. Wolfram could have responded with those reasons. Bizarrely, he, like you, took it as an attack and responded unnecessarily rudely.

deltaonefour · on Dec 6, 2021

There is nothing Bizarre here. That term is offensive and it's used insidiously in place of calling someone strange or weird. It's a term used to circumvent the rules here at HN, because by calling someone bizarre you avoided a direct insult, but the intent is 100% evident. I hate this political shit. Be straight. Don't play games. I have a different opinion than you. There is NOTHING "bizarre" about it.

I assume that you, like the GP, is human and of average human intelligence. So you can deduce several facts from this scenario. First of all... ALL of the REASONS for why someone would develop closed source software ARE COMPLETELY OBVIOUS. I know about the reasons, you know about those reasons, the audience knows about those reasons and the question asker 100% knows about those reasons. NOTHING needs to be explained. Why does microsoft keep windows closed source? Is the concept really that foreign to you? Why don't you ask that question to the CEO of microsoft? Send him an email because it's something you truly wonder about!

It's so Bizarre that you're not aware of the why windows or mathematica is closed source! See what I did there? Nothing is truly bizarre here it's just me imitating your manipulative language.

No what's really going on is you're taking a side and you're arguing for your team OSS despite the fact that you're aware of the insidiousness of asking this question to wolfram himself. Don't take sides, don't call people bizarre. Stay logical and argue for the situation at hand is my advice to you.

Anyway, From all of this, logically, you can derive the fact that the GP didn't ask that question to ascertain an answer BECAUSE the answer is obvious and HE ALREADY KNOWS THE ANSWER. The only other reason why he would ask a question like that is to start drama. He got drama, but likely didn't expect for the tables to be turned and get his own ass humiliated.

Mr. Wolfram 100% could have responded with the reasons I mentioned and those reasons would have been the better answer it would have made him look more mature and not ignite the wrath of the man who asked the question. But obviously Mr. Wolfram isn't a person I would consider socially savy so he took offense to an insult that was disguised as a question and responded in kind... which is not the best/smartest answer, but an appropriate one.