Do you have evidence that the claims he made here are inaccurate ?
I don't necessarily think accurately presenting one's accomplishments for the purpose of explaining the life basis for one's views constitutes arrogance, and even if it does a little arrogance in extraordinary individuals seems like a very minor fault compared against the spectrum of human defects responsible for the state of the world today. That isn't to say that arrogance can't lead to dangerous thought leadership but I think if you take harmless displays such as this as a signal to reject a person's entire viewpoint you will miss out on some ideas that are worth considering. What if everyone had shunned Linus Torvalds because of some of his personality traits ?
>founders of successful reform movements that arguably changed history
I have no idea what he's on about here, but just by making this kind of grandiose claim he makes me skeptical.
>New York Times bestselling authors also nominated for a Campbell Award
I can't find any evidence he has a New York Times Bestseller and would be rather surprised to see that TCATB was one.
>world-championship-level players of strategy game
This is more the level of half truth. From what I can find, he says once he placed top 5 in Power Grid at a convention with 2000 participants and 100 games in Lancaster PA. http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=6125
All you have left after that is his genius programming ability (which to my understanding isn't widely agreed upon).
>I don't necessarily think accurately presenting one's accomplishments for the purpose of explaining the life basis for one's views constitutes arrogance
I would agree with you if that kind of self congratulation wasn't endemic to his writing (in this post and others). And anyway I did consider his viewpoint and don't find it convincing.
I don't necessarily think accurately presenting one's accomplishments for the purpose of explaining the life basis for one's views constitutes arrogance, and even if it does a little arrogance in extraordinary individuals seems like a very minor fault compared against the spectrum of human defects responsible for the state of the world today. That isn't to say that arrogance can't lead to dangerous thought leadership but I think if you take harmless displays such as this as a signal to reject a person's entire viewpoint you will miss out on some ideas that are worth considering. What if everyone had shunned Linus Torvalds because of some of his personality traits ?