I suspect that the Ruby community is happily waving goodbye to Zed Shaw. His sense of entitlement is enormous, he can't go 3 sentences without cursing, and - based on this post alone - any project you want to have succeed would do well to avoid him. I've worked with prima donnas before, and this guy shows all the classic chest thumping signs of being one. Here's something very telling:

Over and over again I’d run into these morons who would offer me tiny jobs, no jobs, insult my intelligence, treat me like all I can do is code, and when I didn’t fit that mold or wanted to charge them for the privilege they’d cheat me or laugh at me.

It's one thing to have personality conflicts. It's something else again when you have them with everyone you run across. That's the point where some inner reflection might just be warranted.

The funny thing is, deep in the post, he makes a few points about purported Rails issues (caveat: I have no way of evaluating those claims). His commentary about the business of consulting is worthwhile as well - and had he not spent the entire rest of the post on senseless ad homeneim attacks, those two things might well have generated a useful discussion. As it is, they'll be utterly and completely ignored. Instead, we'll see a Techmeme crap-storm flare up over the personal attacks and venom.

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