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Comment by kyllo | Hacker News Reader

Yes, this is because the experts don't feel threatened by noobs. They know they are actually experts, so they don't need to stoop to the level of picking on noobs to make them selves feel like experts. It's the "nervous middle classes" that feel a need to pick on noobs to reassure themselves.

PG wrote an article that describes this same phenomenon vis-a-vis nerds and popular kids in school:

If I remember correctly, the most popular kids don't persecute nerds; they don't need to stoop to such things. Most of the persecution comes from kids lower down, the nervous middle classes.

http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html

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This.

When jasonkester says:

  Generally it ranges between "reasonably good" and "better 
  than most people I know" [...] [b]ut there it stops.

I don't believe it's necessarily true. It has more to do with how they think they are perceived. Look at Kobe Bryant, one of the best basketball players to ever live. I've seen videos where someone will challenge him, "I'll get 2 before you get 10". Kobe takes that as disrespect. This person doesn't realize how good he is. He then goes on to dominate the 1-on-1, aggressively trash talking throughout. Try upsetting a doctor by calling him/her "mister"/"miss" repeatedly.

> Try upsetting a doctor by calling him/her "mister"/"miss" repeatedly.

I know a ton of CS PhDs, they never like to be called doctor or introduce themselves as Dr. So and So, are you talking about MDs?

"Dr." is a title; "doctor" is noun which only ever refers to an MD.

Or a D.O.! But in general, physicians prefer the noun "physician" to "doctor".

only in the United States

Some surgeons (who, these days, happen to hold the degree of MD) still find the "mister" thing respectful of their specialty. Sure, it may be a hangover from a time long past when surgeons usually weren't qualified physicians, but now it signifies that you understand they aren't "mere" GPs/physicians attending. (Interesting note only, not a rebuttal.)

there might also be an element of countersignaling [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countersignaling] involved - the real experts prove that they are not "nervous middle classes" by actively being nicer.

These nervous middle classes who aren't experts in anything more complex than "fizz without the buzz" often rise to project manager status by taking out the existing leaders. These are the "open source project leaders" who engage in backslagging, usually indirectly, e.g. telling their clueless minions that so-and-so represents a threat to revenue and perhaps someone should "earn another stripe for their hacker colors by putting a dent in this problem".

The funniest thing is that they tend to rise, rise some more, until they reach a level that they're not really skilled enough for, and that's where their career plateaus. In case you wonder how all the incapable people end up there.

Yeah, there's a theory that people tend to get promoted to their level of incompetence.

Also related is the "Dilbert Effect" where the incompetent get promoted to management so they can't screw everything up by doing actual work, so they get to just have meetings instead, while the competent workers continue working away.

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