I love Zed cause even when he's sincerely offering help to someone struggling, he's still 100% Zed; can't even offer help without mentioning how badass he is. Whether you like him or not, being completely and utterly yourself is an admirable trait I think.
The world is full of people like Zed, only people like Zed don't typically hang around on the internet. They're at the bar, or playing is a softball or bowling league, yelling at enlisted in the military, pulling over speeders, driving taxis in New York, or selling pizza by the slice at a pizzeria. what ever. These guys don't give an damn about your sensibilities, they're going to tell you what they think, whether you want to hear or not, and if the language is too coarse, too bad.
Dude can be an asshat no doubt. But that's allowed in my book.
The great thing about these people, I think, is that they're going to tell you what they think about you, no BS, but they also expect the same from you: you can be 100% straight up with them.
Reminds me of a good friend and also of a regretted uncle. People I learned a lot from and who certainly played a part in making me who I am.
Zed Shaw is an inspiration because he has the courage to be a man in a boyish, neoteny-driven industry. Something tells me that even when he's 50 or 60, he's not going to get cosmetic surgery like most major players in the VC-funded world.
I don't know him, but he strikes me as an actual badass. I mean, I'm badass as hell by tech-employee standards, but that's only because most tech-employees are happy corporate serfs and I stand out in relative terms by actually having opinions. Relative to full-grown men I am fairly average on the badass spectrum: respectable, but not quite Mike Ehrmantraut.
Zed comes off as (and probably is) an actual badass. And in a world where there are self-flagellating or clueless young engineers actually advocating for Scrum to be imposed on them, that's an inspiration that we desperately need.
