Letters between Backus and Dijkstra (1979)
You know, I'm wondering: could part of Dijkstra's reputed arrogance be due to a cultural difference? I'm Dutch, and bluntly calling out flaws in each other's work is not considered all that rude over here; it's almost the opposite: not calling someone out on their flaws implies we either consider them a lost cause or not worth the hassle of educating.I almost got fired from a teaching position in Sweden because I told my 3rd year bachelor students that many did not bother to add their names or the assignment number, or using paragraphs and in some cases even basic interpunction on their assignments. And that this was well below the level required to to pass secondary school, and that I expect better from them.This was apparently too confrontational, and a few upset students later I got chewed out and almost fired. Meanwhile, from my point of view, I was just doing my job and already sugarcoating it by Dutch standards.Having said that, yes, even by Dutch standards I would say that Dijkstra liked to troll people a bit.PS: I really like the following insight from Dijkstra's review: But whereas machines must be able to execute programs (without understanding them), people must be able to understand them (without executing them).