Toxic experts care more about gatekeeping than teaching

Ned Batchelder wrote a beginner-friendly explanation of Big-O notation, and a commenter named pyon told him to be ashamed for omitting an obscure technical detail. Batchelder uses the exchange to describe "toxic experts": people who hoard knowledge to separate themselves from newcomers instead of teaching them. Their missing skill, he argues, is empathy — the real gap the tech industry needs to close.