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Passive Aggressive people really annoy me. I have to work with them daily and I just wish they'd come right out and say what's on their minds. The worst thing is you can't rebut them, which is of course why they do it. You have to try and tease their sentences apart and ask them what they meant by it and it drags on and gets ugly ... it's not worth it and they know it.
Recently I've been coming across some interesting comments in programming code written by others. These are often very domain-specific and difficult to explain to others but often they take the form of "if you want to enable this pointless and stupid feature this is how you do it." Or "you can enable this and such clunky wizard if your users are too retarded to figure out even the basics themselves." Naturally, in typical passive aggressive fashion, these comments aren't as blatant as I have depicted, but that's what they amount to if interpreted properly.
I guess I have been doing this too. Who knew I was PA? In documentation that people actually read I'm quite circumspect, I never come right and say things but I manage to take subtle jabs at things. Java, Microsoft software, the Unix mindset, all of my favorite targets get their due and the fun is crafting things so that they whiz right past the heads of most people but those in the know will crack a tiny smile. That's the fun. Today I referred to a decision made by a standards body as being crafted by a "small cadre" and thus it is supported here. Earlier I asked why anybody in their right minds would use Microsoft IIS, but if they do here is the grotesque hack that will make things work.
Embedded deep deep within code that nobody will ever read I'm downright nasty and borderline obscene. Someday it's going to get me into trouble. Maybe I'll be retired by then.
So I've heard of Extreme Programming but I've never heard of passive Aggressive Programming. Have I coined new term?
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