This is the second HN blog post I have read today where the author views a (former) colleague as an enemy to be defeated ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19190472 was the other one). Given that they are having a casual phone call it can be assumed they are some kind of friends. Yet the author's self worth seems to be at least partially based in winning a game of being more correct.
Even if someone is wrong about something, why take joy in their failures or in beating them at something? Wouldn't it be better to take joy in their successes? It's not the point of the article, but it is jarring to me.