> Yet, I don't think Gunn should be criticized for it at all.
The article dedicates itself to critiquing the techniques, but spends no time that I can remember talking about the human beings and their feelings. That’s how I write professionally, and I’ve found it can really upset people who infer that critique of some thing is therefore critique of some person — even when no such inference is intended by the author.
> Did he really have to go on to flame everyone else to a crisp?
No one person is flamed to a crisp here, but some people’s mathematical works are absolutely set on fire. If this had been a critique about the people in geometric algebra, I never would have read it at all, because that’s not what interests me. Critiquing cargo-curled erroneous hearsay as invalid resonates strongly, especially with the focus on the math instead of the people.
As a newb, I learned a great deal about mathematics from reading this, but I still don’t know who any of the people involved are. Isn’t that the holy grail of professional critique: it’s about the work, not the worker?
Or, am I missing something where this article is personally attacking people rather rhan people’s work output?
He repeatedly makes assertions that "the authors" have "no idea what they're talking about". The difference between flaming an individual person and "the authors" is thin at best, arguably only different in that it flames more than one person at once. And honestly, to the extent he's correct, I think that's fine. But let's not kid ourselves about what we're reading.
Well, he describes some folks' work as "crackpot-level bullshit" and repeatedly states that other authors "have no idea what they're talking about". These seem to me to be personal critiques.
Generally, I'm not sure the distinction you draw is quite so clear cut -- if I say somebody is great but all their work is hot garbage, that sounds fairly personal.
The article dedicates itself to critiquing the techniques, but spends no time that I can remember talking about the human beings and their feelings. That’s how I write professionally, and I’ve found it can really upset people who infer that critique of some thing is therefore critique of some person — even when no such inference is intended by the author.
> Did he really have to go on to flame everyone else to a crisp?
No one person is flamed to a crisp here, but some people’s mathematical works are absolutely set on fire. If this had been a critique about the people in geometric algebra, I never would have read it at all, because that’s not what interests me. Critiquing cargo-curled erroneous hearsay as invalid resonates strongly, especially with the focus on the math instead of the people.
As a newb, I learned a great deal about mathematics from reading this, but I still don’t know who any of the people involved are. Isn’t that the holy grail of professional critique: it’s about the work, not the worker?
Or, am I missing something where this article is personally attacking people rather rhan people’s work output?