benlehman: (slug)
benlehman ([personal profile] benlehman) wrote2005-10-18 06:15 pm

I don't understand

The amount of flack I've gotten for wanting to teach about Forge theory without arguing about it. Do people not understand the difference between a polemic and a teaching text? Or do the simply not recognize the latter as having any value?

Feh.

[identity profile] rob-donoghue.livejournal.com 2005-10-18 04:26 pm (UTC)(link)
As one of those people, I'm obliged to remark that the presence of intelligent debate doesn't really take the edge off the gorillas if gorillas are what you end up dealing with (any more that the fact that there _are_ pedants means there aren't people seeking thoughtful discussion). I think the holy wars only begin when you start saying who is which. ;)

[identity profile] foreign-devilry.livejournal.com 2005-10-18 04:31 pm (UTC)(link)
True enough. And sometimes the gorillas wear sheeps' clothing.

Seems like whenever Shreyas and I discuss the Forge nowadays, it's mostly to talk shit or gossip about people whose posts we find annoying or more misleading than helpful. But that doesn't mean we aren't heavily indebted to discussions there.

[identity profile] benlehman.livejournal.com 2005-10-20 03:05 am (UTC)(link)
My goal with the essay is to try to get people who come to learn a place to do it away from the gorillas.

We'll see how it works.

yrs--
--Ben