Yesterday many people on my Twitter timeline sharing an article about Dennis Ritchie's death:
Dennis Ritchie, Father of C and Co-Developer of Unix, Dies https://t.co/LxkCK6i1DE via @WIRED
— Om Malik (@om) October 13, 2016
I clicked through to read the article, which was from 2011. Why is this circulating again?
My guess is that some people were retweeting without bothering to read the article, and thought he died recently.
This makes me think of a reaction to a tweet I posted.
@chiuki @yuichi_araki are you sure?
— Michel Onwordi (@lupo342) February 19, 2016
I was furious. Why would I post something that I'm not sure about? I even backed it up with a slide. Why are you doubting me?
Took me a while to remember that that's what other people do. Say things even when they are only 60% sure. I look back at my career and cringe to think of all the times when other people were regarded more knowledgeable because they open their mouths even when they are not sure.
This time, I am happy that I checked the details before passing it on.
Inline coding questions will not be answsered. Instead, ask on StackOverflow and put the link in the comment.
"I was furious. Why would I post something that I'm not sure about?" I AM WITH YOU.
ReplyDeleteThis kind of thing is another category in my mental scrapbook, "Other People Do Things Differently And That Is A Thing That Happens." Note that I don't even pretend to say, "and that's ok"... :D