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So now you bait and switch?

You started out with a condescending post which implied that anyone who'd stayed awake in CS 101 would find Twitter trivially easy to scale.

Then you switched course to claiming that you know how to do this because of experience working a gigantic installation.

Or are you asserting that the average CS 101 project consists of running the production messaging systems for major stock exchanges?



That wasn't a bait and switch. He suggested the engineering problem isn't as hard as is being made out, and then when you claimed otherwise, he explained that he was in a strong position to know otherwise. In the real world, this is known as a "good argument".

He didn't claim his experience proved HE could do it. He didn't imply that you NEEDED his experience to do it. He was calling you out on your claim by showing that he had done it, and so knew from experience that it wasn't hard. You're the one moving the goal posts.

Note: I actually don't have an opinion on whether that experience is relevant to twitter's situation, but it certainly wasn't a bait and switch.


I didn't claim otherwise; you'll note that that was my first comment in that little thread.

The fact that he went from "CS 101" to "major stock exchange" as the barometer seemed a little fishy to me, ya know?


Evidently the concept of studying theory in school then applying that theory in the practical world of industry is too complicated to fit into 140 chars.




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