Today there were a number of links on Reddit about Erik Naggum. I had never heard his name before. I therefore read up on him. He recently died. Erik was a Norwegian Lisp programmer. He was also a USENET philosopher, celebrity, and legend. I read some of his essays. One declared that knowledge is more important than life. Another stated that intelligence is determined entirely by genetics.Aside USENET, Erik Naggum was known for hating Perl, C++, and XML. You see this from some of his quotes on the subject. For example, he asserts that “part of any serious QA is removing Perl code.” Another is that “only 5 people on the planet know C++.”
Erik's claim to fame seems to be his USENET personality. It was both blunt and aggressive. He flamed everyone on USENET. Some call him cruel but smart. It seems a shame that he may be remembered as a troll who “ate newbies alive”. Here is another of his many quotes: “Some people are little more than herd animals.”
