Re: Bad/Good ideas and damage control by experienced participants

[Miles Fidelman <[e-mail]>]

Barry Leiba wrote:
> Two things here:
>
> For what it's worth, we have collectively used "greybeard" to refer to
> long-time IETF participants, for various reasons and don't further
> this particular conversation, and it's not fair to say that we can use
> it to refer to ourselves but others can't use it to refer to us.  We
> can have a separate discussion about whether it's a non-inclusive term
> that's an artifact of the past and better let go, but at this point
> it's neither ageist nor misandrist to use it.
Well... I've always considered it a badge of honor.
>
> It *is* "greybeardist", if I may coin the term for the moment, to say,
> "All those greybeards are jerks."  But if your experience is that
> every time you've been treated badly it's been by a long-term IETF
> participant, it's NOT ageist to tell people that that's the case.
On the other hand, is it really a negative when someone is snarky with a 
snot-nosed kid who doesn't appreciate being told that their "great new 
idea" is a retread of something folks learned not to do decades ago?

Miles

-- 
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.  .... Yogi Berra

Theory is when you know everything but nothing works.
Practice is when everything works but no one knows why.
In our lab, theory and practice are combined:
nothing works and no one knows why.  ... unknown