Scott Hanselman Is Not a Dick

In my write up on ASP.NET MVC, I decided to recount my conversation with Scott Hanselman on the subject of the "story" behind ASP.NET MVC. I thought it would be fun to offer some anecdotes, but in doing so I inadvertently left out some context to the stories that ended up making Scott come off as a bit of an a$$hole. Obviously this was not intended - and so as a favor to my friend I thought it would be good to pony up, admit that I blew it, and offer the context of the story so people understand that

1. I rushed the post and didn't reread it enough - else I would have "rounded" out my Vegas story
2. Scott's not a dick. No really - he's taught me a lot over the years...

No, he didn't ask me to write this :).

It Doesn't Really Stay In Vegas
Tonite I got a comment on my ASP.NET MVC post that was a bit alarming:

I think your story about Scott makes him *sound* like a tremendously socially awkward jerk, who I would never want to meet in person.

I got on my IM to ping Scott to see what he thought and just as I started to write, Communicator chimes just as my cell phone starts ringing. And it's Scott:

Dude. Pick up.

Scott has some strange powers. Knock Knock Neo... On the phone was Scott and Justice Gray (Justice Scalia's cousin) - the guy who left the comment on my blog. I joked around for a bit, thinking that Scott was having a little fun with me, but I was wrong. Evidently Justice thought that Scott was indeed a dick as described in my story - and emailed him to ask him why this was (I think that was the context). Next thing ya know I'm on the phone with both of them, explaining what indeed happened that night.

Can you explain to Justice the context of that story for me? I sort of came off sounding like a bit of a dick I think...

So I recounted the story completely and we had some good laughs along the way (especially at Justice's expense - his thick Canadian accent is ripe for lame US jokes). As a result I decided to write a follow-up to the story so I can add some context in case anyone else thinks that Scott Hanselman is a dick (which he's not - see the title of this post for reference).

A Controller, Model, and View Walk Into a Bar...
Scott gave a talk at DevConnections on the ASP.NET MVC framework (an intro) in Vegas this last Fall, and during that talk he was asked a series of questions by a member of the audience that bordered on obnoxious.

Being the seasoned speaker that Scott is, he handled them well, and kept the pace of the talk moving along. Undaunted, the guy in the audience - we'll call him "Red Shirt" - kept on Scott during his presentation and actually heckled him. Heckled him mercilessly as a matter of fact - yelling out once that "your jokes aren't funny!".

Again Scott kept the talk moving (funny jokes or not), and at times people around Mr. Red Shirt started to bristle every time he raised his hand. Scott started to look to the other side of the room to politely seek other input - but Mr. Red Shirt was not persuaded. He began to blurt. No hands anymore - just blurting out his thoughts and quips, interrupting Scott during his presentation, making people feel uncomfortable, and ruining the pace of the talk. Very obnoxious indeed.

But fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony...

Fast Forward 6 Hours...
I managed to get upgraded to an unbelievable suite - 2 bedrooms and a full-wall view of the strip. Scott called it my "J Lo Suite". I don't know how/why they gave it to me - but it didn't matter - it was Party Time. I called everyone I knew and said "come on up!" and they did: Phil Haack, Rick Strahl, Jon Galloway, a person who's name I can't remember from Microsoft, Jay Flowers, Scott Hanselman, and Mr. Red Shirt - who came with Jay (now you know why I don't like CI Factory. Just kiddin... :).

We had a great time and the drinks were flowing, and next thing you know we're talking about the talk Scott gave. Mr. Red Shirt wasn't being as obnoxious as he was earlier (in fact he was quite nice)- and Scott thought it would be good to go over some of his questions. The back and forth was a decent debate but soon enough Mr. Red Shirt started to get a little pushy - and this time Scott spoke a little more freely.

A Quick Tangent...
See this is the thing I love about Scott - he seems to have facts in his Brain RAM that are, literally, floating ever-present, ready to be deployed. Millions of em. No, Billions. While we were walking the DevConnections product display floor, Scott spied this piece of hardware from Microsoft that allows you to have 360 degree videa conferences (Microsoft Roundtable). An amazing piece of technology. He tells Phil and me all about it - and proceeds to start telling the Microsoft rep (who's there demoing the thing to people) all about it as well to the point where the rep, literally, whipped out his pad and paper and started to write down what Scott was saying.

Url's flying, numbers, algorithms, processing speeds with pixel assimilation. It was like this at a lot of the booths where we stopped to talk. Scott knows a lot of stuff and is blessed with a freaky memory. When I said I never wanted to debate him - it's for this reason alone. I can't remember much of anything, ever.

And We're Back...
As Scott continued the polite debate with Mr. Red Shirt, it was clear that he wanted to change the subject for fear of losing his cool (he was, after all, heckled mercilessly). Scott rapid-fired some serious geek at Mr. Red Shirt, ending up with how 0^n scale worked, in an effort to close off the conversation. Mr. Red Shirt was so overwhelmed that all he could say was:

"Ummm - yah that's cool. I never thought of it that way..."

And Scott replied:

"That's Comp Sci Baby"

And the room erupted. It wasn't so much that we were laughing AT Mr. Red Shirt... no - it was just the best line anyone could have said at that moment. Short, eloquent, to the point, not mean-spirited... just sort of ... Scott.

Summary I feel bad that I didn't reread my post enough to see that I should have added some more context here. I thought the story was pretty funny but clearly I was too rushed to see that I probably offended a friend. All in all Scott was a good sport about it all and never mentioned anything to me - a very good sport. Moral of the story: reread your posts. At least 5 or 6 times or you might get a call sometime when you least expect it...