Also, I didn't mean to say that he writes crappy code. What I meant was, those who already write crappy code will now be less inclined to improve because some tech-celebrity said it's okay.
I agree, no need to call anyone an idiot or incompetent.
But, I would not want Ryan writing code that people completely trust to live on (hospital equipment, NASA, etc).
That does not make him an incompetent person. Just someone with opinions of wanting to keep things as minimalistic as possible which is just one of the many paths available for us to choose in life. In some cases, this is great, in others it is not.
If you write every piece of code like how one would write hospital equipment or mission critical code, then you are wasting your time and money.
Just like I wouldn't expect a civil engineer to build a bridge in a suburb capable of holding 5 Tons because "NASA does it that way because their spaceships are heavy" I wouldn't expect the same guarantees from software engineers writing an image sharing application.
I wouldn't trust most developers to write code for hospital equipment, NASA, Boeing, etc...even myself (I'm not that kind of programmer) and probably you (though I don't know your background). It takes a certain kind of programmer to write safety critical code, and they have to have some amount of training in that direction.
