I wrote:
> It seems to me it is far more likely he is what he appears to be: a > brilliant but headstrong inventor who often does sloppy work. He often cuts > corners because he assumes he is right. He has no regard for conventional > scientific standards. > My office is out here at the PDK airport. I sometimes chat with pilots. They describe a certain breed of pilot. Someone who is skilled at piloting, intuitive, and learned to fly as easily as a bird, yet who is sloppy and arrogant. These pilots do not follow the rules. They have overweening confidence that they can get out of any bad situation with their skill. They take unnecessary risks. Sooner or later they get in trouble. Pilots say of them: There are old pilots and bold pilots, but no old, bold pilots. You see people like this in other walks of life, especially people in dangerous occupations, such as farmers, or fishermen who go to sea drunk in bad weather. Even among programmers there are people who live dangerously, write pages of effective but sloppy code, without comments. See: http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/real.programmers.html - Jed
