Code Rage

Waiting until you are so frustrated with a problem that you're already ready to explode is a surefire way to make you sound like a complete jerk when asking someone for help.

Take this gem from the backgroundrb mailing list back in 2008 (I removed the names but if you are really dying to find out who this guy is I'm sure google has a way):

From: **************
To: backgroundrb-devel@rubyforge.org
Subject: Re: [Backgroundrb-devel] How to obtain task progress for long-running methods

It'd be nice if you had a comprehensive tutorial covering the latest
"up to date" way to handle these things.

I'm pulling my fucking hair out trying to figure out how to upgrade
from 0.2.1 and the doc site isn't doing much but confusing me more.

....Snip...

Someone please point me in the right direction. My emails to the list
and questions on the irc channel have gone unanswered for the last
couple of days.

From: Mailing List Manager
To: ****************
Cc: backgroundrb-devel@rubyforge.org
Subject: Re: [Backgroundrb-devel] How to obtain task progress for long-running methods

You need memcache, if you want to use result storing and retrieval to
work, when worker is processing a task.

...Snip...

At last, Do not swear on mailing lists. You can do that on your blog,
irc (some channels allow, others don't). But NEVER on mailing list, i
hate that.

From: ****************
To: Mailing List Manager
Cc: backgroundrb-devel@rubyforge.org
Subject: Re: [Backgroundrb-devel] How to obtain task progress for long-running methods

Give me a fucking break. What are you the internet language police?

No wonder everyone I know is switching to workling / starling. Not
only does the BDRB documentation suck, the support on the mailing list
sucks even worse.

I'll go with Ezra's recommendation and move along. Thanks for the
non-help, dickhead.

There are plenty of ways to diminish your job prospects by posting stupid stuff to web ... but just losing it and going off in an expletive laiden email for no reason really isn't helping anyone. Now, you could say, with the Internet comes a certain feeling of anonymity - it was a gmail address - but this guy has any entire three-url signature touting his blog, his commercial project and his open source project.

Is this guy a complete jerk in general? I have no idea - we might have just caught a glimpse into his mental state on a bad day - but it sure looks like it from this exchange. He really doesn't seem like the sort of person you want to have anything to do with - on principle I'd stay far far away from any project, open source or commercial, that he's related to, he looks like he's a couple bad situations away from a spasodic meltdown.

I don't know if that's fair - he might have just gotten frustrated that no one was solving his problems for him and snapped - but regardless that exchange is now embedded in the collective memory of the internet.

Doing the same thing to a co-worker probably won't get you blogged about, but it'll definitely stick around in that person's head and chances are it'll get around the office. 

There are plenty of ways to diminish your job prospects by posting stupid stuff to web - most of those have at least some upside (Well the party was fun..., or That's the way I really feel!) but just losing it and going off in an expletive laiden email for no reason really isn't helping anyone.

Next time a project or a 3rd party library is frustrating the hell out of you, take a step back, take a deep breath, and sit on your hands for a couple of minutes before your send that incisively worded email to a whole bunch of people who are helping you out of altruism and aren't making a penny taking the time to respond to your questions.