Ouch. My jaw dropped when I saw my old article on the front page of HN.<p>To me, posting this article in 2007 taught me two lessons:<p>#1: The goal of good writing is not to be understood, but rather to not be misunderstood.<p>Judging by the hundreds of angry comments on that original link, I failed miserably.  At the time, nobody read my little blog, so I didn't expect anyone to see this post.  I was really just writing it to answer a few of my Rails friends' questions.  I didn't brace it for public attack.<p>#2: The public you is not you.<p>I'm a mediocre programmer, trying to improve, and at the time just trying to make my website the way I wanted it.  So it kinda hurt at first to read hundreds of fellow programmers saying I'm the biggest idiot to walk the earth.<p>Then I just realized that my post should have been written clearer, and the reason people were so upset is because it sounded like I was attacking this framework/language that they had spent so many hundreds of hours learning.  It had nothing to do with me. Only I know my real programming skills, so their comments were not really about me.<p>Ever since then I don't let comments get to me, either way.  Neither praise nor criticism should be taken personally.  It's just feedback on the post/subject.  Useful for learning how not to be misunderstood, but has nothing to do with you.