Snippet #524

Zed Shaw describes himself as a "famous programmer". Let's compare Google search results for programmers: Zed Shaw (17,300), Linus Torvalds (1.4 million), John Carmack (262,000); actors: Brad Pitt (18 million), Jennifer Aniston (14.6 million); singers: Shakira (34.6 million), Beyonce (61.2 million). So yes, it's clear that "fame" as a programmer is a far cry from what it is in cinema and the music industry, but it's also clear that even within the "little" pond of programming, Zed Shaw has quite a bit of cheek labelling himself as "famous". According to Google Zed is a little over three times as "famous" as me (5,540), but only 6% as famous as David Heinemeier Hansson (297,000). Seems like he'll either need to churn out a bunch more code, or keep publishing incendiary articles if he wants to become competitive...