Charlatans, Plagarism, and Moral Courage

Yesterday morning the owner of a forum for painting contractors stated that he had visited a blog written by a “so called professional”. He went on to write that the author of the blog “has pretty much copied what I have written about why we can't price by the square foot floor area!” He further claimed that the author had copied the work of another individual. He called the author “a low life crumb”.

To the best of my knowledge, I am the only person who has a blog who has written on square foot pricing. To the best of my knowledge, I am the only person with a blog who has knowledge of the other individual whose work was “copied”.

I contacted the owner of the forum and bluntly asked if he was referring to me. He refused to answer. However, someone from his IP address visited my blog yesterday less than an hour before his post. While that is not absolute evidence that he is referring to me, it is highly circumstantial.

The following is my response (with certain names changed):

You have taken it upon yourself to publicly attack me, without the courage to identify me by name. You have refused to tell me if your post refers to me. However, given that an IP address matching yours visited my blog shortly before your post, the evidence is rather conclusive.

You claim that I have copied you and John. While I am uncertain what you mean exactly by “copied”, your intent is pretty clear when you refer to me as “a low life crumb”.

Such a claim is at best an exhibition of paranoia, and at worse outright dishonesty. Certainly I have learned things from you and John. I have also learned from hundreds, if not thousands, of others.

You imply that I should cite the source for every idea I express. This would be an exercise in absurdity. But if there is one thing I have learned about you, absurdity is to be expected.

Interestingly, I do not recall you citing the sources of your ideas. Are we to believe that every idea you express is of your own thinking? Are we to believe that you have not learned from others? Are we to believe that every statement you make is entirely original?

You claim that I copied your ideas on square foot pricing. I learned geometry in the eighth grade. I did not need you to figure out the fallacies of that estimating method. Are you so full of yourself that you think you are the only person who could reach that conclusion? And where did you learn it? Why don’t you give that person credit? And more to the point, why do you not give Euclid credit whenever you use geometry?

You claim that I copied John’s ideas. I paid his organization more than $25,000 over 3.5 years to attend conferences, send my people to book camps, etc. Would you expect that I didn’t pick up some ideas from that? What the hell was I spending the money for if it wasn’t to get ideas? Does that mean that I should cite John every time I use his ideas or express them?

Over the past 10 years I have written thousands of posts. I have written tens of thousands of words. I have written published articles on subjects far removed from paint contracting—child care, history, entreprenuerism, property rights, and much more. For you to claim that I am pretending to be creative flies in the face of the facts. But I would not expect the facts to get in the way of your opinion.

You have made a very grievous mistake. You have attacked my honest and integrity. You have attacked me on numerous occasions in the past, but your attacks were so pathetic that they did not warrant a response. I dismiss childish comments for what they are—evidence of the speaker’s ignorance. I will not dismiss this.

I will not speculate as to your motivation. I do not know if it is jealousy, simmering anger, wanton irrationality, or something else. I do know that it is ugly.

You may not have the courage to accuse me publicly. I however, will not shy away from making your accusations known. I do not fear the judgment of rational people. The judgment of the irrational, and you, means nothing to me.

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