Comment by frankdenbow | Hacker News Reader

Comment by frankdenbow | Hacker News Reader

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(I was the guy in front scraping hot sauce off my computer/bag/clothes after you threw the bottle up front)

Totally understand why you would be offended by the slide. Noah is a bit edgier than most, and he was likely going for entertainment value. It was not in the best taste to do it.

From what I know of Noah Kagan, he seems to be a good guy that goes out of his way to help people in the scene. If all you got out of his talk was to type faster, I think you missed out on a lot. There are lots of great points that were made that may have been lost in presentation for you. Also not sure if he fully understood why you wanted to explain why you threw the bottle, but I'll let him defend himself on that.

I'm all for being upfront and honest about things (sort of what my last post was about [0]) so its good to have these things out there. Its much more effective than throwing hotsauce at innocent bystanders :-)

0: http://frankdenbow.tumblr.com/post/7269203638/on-honesty-in-...

Noah is a bit edgier than most

At this point, if anyone ever described me as "edgy", I'd be aghast.

I didn't get hot sauce on me and I wasn't at MicroConf — but I will defend Noah. I've met him on several occasions and he's been friendly and helpful. He also gives time and energy to many people and projects without wanting anything in return.

I'm not defending his presentation; that slide offends me too. But I know that he deserves better than to wake up seeing this on the front page of Hacker News.

The author could have used the slide as a jumping off point for greater issues like gender equality in tech, or the pros and cons of being offensive in a presentation, or even a discussion about the word "bitch". Any of those topics would have forwarded the point more than writing a long ad hominem attack on someone who surely didn't intend to hurt or offend anyone personally.

"But I know that he deserves better than to wake up seeing this on the front page of Hacker News."

He is in almost complete control over this. Or he was when he woke up the morning of the conference.

Pro tip: one should not defend clearly sexist behavior if for no other reason than it associates you with sexist behavior in your own mind. And the speaker's behavior, as described, is clearly sexist.

I wasn't defending Noah's behavior. I was defending Noah.

Your defense is wrapped up in the context of the entire conversation, which is specifically about a particular behavior. Claims that you're offended by the behavior and are only defending ther person, even if they are genuine, are superseded by the enclosing context. For better or worse.

as near as i could read, no one was attacking Noah -- just Noah's behavior, which seems out of line.

See the "i'm not calling you a racist, i'm calling your behavior racist" crucial line of distinction. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0Ti-gkJiXc)

Noah can be a sweet, helpful, lovable teddy bear, and still have behavior that needs to be called out.

I've never met Noah. He may well be an awesome guy. But otherwise great people can do stupid and inappropriate things. That presentation was unacceptable.

And I get that it was probably meant in a jokey way, but this was simply not the venue for sexist jokes. Consider that there is very little separating "ironic sexism" and "actual sexism."

For more info on what Microconf was about (and some good take-aways) check out this podcast here: http://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/episodes/episode-46-mi...

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