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Comment by thowaway673y | Hacker News Reader

RMS is no normal human, he can match with 5 or 6 100x programmers from symbolic company which they have admitted.

Just a note that this comment, and the thread below it (hopefully excluding the one you're reading), produced zero value to the readers of the thread. Writing these comments must've taken a lot of care and energy for the authors of the comments. But because the whole thread was essentially just a quarrel, and speaking over each other, all that effort was wasted.

Restraint: I believe this is the HN way. Hold back your comments, think about how many people are going to read it. Now think if your comment will add value to the lives or knowledge of those readers. If the answer is "No", then please exercise restraint, and try to overcome your desire to say something smart (or, intentionally, dumb) just because you have the opportunity and the time to respond.

Disclaimer: I have no relationship with HN, apart from being just another user. So my claims of "the HN way", should not be taken to mean that I know anything about HN, or the community.

Except, from what I’ve heard, RMS is full of shit about that and was actually caught copy-and-pasting Symbolics code. Kind of like how he originally based GNU emacs on gosmacs and early versions had to be removed from distribution as a result.

Nowhere in my comment is there a suggestion that RMS is a “normal human.” If your intention is not to refute my comment but to add unrelated info, then thank you for that info.

Your comments gives the impression anyone could have substituted RMS place in history. I want to point out that this is not the case. RMS is unique in at least 2 ways. One his intellect stands out even among the 100x programmers. Second willing to sacrifice his personal life for a cause he believes in. Its very rare both intersect. You can see either Einstein level geniuses or Activists who sacrifice their personal life. RMS is an intersection of both. The only other person I can think of is Aaron Swartz.

That’s interesting that you came away with the impression that Stallman is replaceable from my comment given my comment states in literal terms that Stallman crafted an idea that changed the world. What specific part of my comment gave you the impression that he’s replaceable?

> What specific part of my comment gave you the impression that he’s replaceable?

I think but obviously can't confirm it might have been this bit:

> ... at least Stallman comes to mind as an example of someone who was able to change the course of history *without much personal power, instead he crafted ideas that had power.*

To me this might be construed as Stallman could be replaced by anyone, since he had little personal power and only crafted ideas; anyone could craft ideas.

I might be wrong though but that would be my guess

Exactly

> instead he crafted ideas that had power

The emphasis is on the idea rather than the individual.

This the most HN discussion I've ever seen on HN

I know, it's basically an argument about whether RMS is a god or merely a prophet.

Nowhere in this thread is there an argument or dispute over Stallman’s status.

i can dispute that with this blog i archived somewhere in 2004 about this very matter: link.com/blog/what-the-world-got-wrong-about-me/

What did Aaron Schwartz do to justify being placed on the same level of genius as RMS?

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