Was he at all correct in thinking that this applied to Torvalds? Time seems to have proven that ESR was completely off-base.
ESR might have been wrong on the specific item at hand (I have not read the whole thread, and he, ESR was wrong on a lot of things over the years) but some of his arguments are definitely right - at least seen from a "gifted something" who flopped in uni ;)
Personally, for years I had been completely ignoring everybody who framed something as "a better alternative to talent" (wtf?) or said the magic words "you are smarter than me". They correlated too well with "stupid ideas I knew (or quickly checked) to be wrong".
Nowadays I'm trying to fish for useful information even in messages which push my bullshit-o-meter out of scale, but it takes work.
If you want to maximize your chance of being treated seriously, stick to constructive arguments about the problem at hand, not some generic unfalsifiable wisdom.
Of course, there's a fine line between stroking and patronizing, though.
It works until you get to those with really big egos who take pride in dismantling such tricks and gaming others by pretending to fall for their games. These need higher levels of gaming.
But in the end, if you truly think that something is a good idea for everyone involved, just explain why.
What a thing!
If this exchange, or a similar one, had not taken place, would things be the way they are today? Or would the predictions of this email have come to fruition?