Rational Survivability

Humble Pie

This is a particularly difficult blog to write.  As humble as I try to be, I think I might have believed my own marketing for a while there.  I feel badly.

Ever since I wrote this piece titled “Dear Mr. Schneier, If Cloud Is Nothing New, Why Are You Talking So Much About It?” I’ve been churning on it.  I couldn’t put my finger on why I felt, well, guilty.

So here’s the rub: I added some petty color in that post that was rude and disrespectful to Bruce. Nothing major, but unnecessary.  Time to own it.

When I wrote it at 1:30am out of frustration with Bruce’s comments it seemed funny at the time.

Then I re-read it the next morning and thought to myself, “that was a bit pointed for no particular reason.”

I let it slide because I don’t make a habit of editing posts once they’re up and normally, it’s just part of the shtick.  I also figured he’d never read it anyway.

Then Bruce emailed me, and what he said, despite my own rationalization, really kicked me in the butt for days:

I linked to it from my blog post.  I did so because it was interesting, but almost didn’t because it was rude.  Honestly, your points are good enough to stand on their own.

Bruce

Wow.

I apologized poorly in email and annotated the post to say I was a dick, but that’s not enough because if what Bruce said is true — that my points are good enough to stand on their own — then I owe him the respect of removing the things that don’t need to be there — and shouldn’t have been in the first place.

So I’m going to do that.

You might think I’m overreacting or you might disagree with my actions as a betrayal of my supposed personality.  Doesn’t matter.  I should do better.

Thanks for the humility reminder, Bruce.

I still don’t agree with you, but I respect your right to an opinion.  Sorry for the snark.

/Hoff