Another reason to be careful who you call an idiot on the internet: he might be hailed as a genius someday, making you look like the real fool.

Maneesh Agrawala was just awarded a $500,000 MacArthur Foundation award, widely known as a "Genius Grant." But when the distinguished computer scientist and graphics expert was a mere Stanford undergrad, asking about rock music and videogames on the Usenet discussion system, he was once considered a pest.

A moronic "asshole," to be precise, who spoiled movies because he was ignorant of the etiquette on rec.arts.movies:

Well, who's the asshole now, snarler@pine.circa.ufl.edu?? The MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant: it's the ultimate internet comeback. Even better than a Golden Globes speech!



(Full version of the posts below, WITH SPOILERS.)

(We're warning you, dear reader/commenter, as a hedge, just in case we don't get a MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant and are thus left defenseless against your heckling.)

(Top pic via MacArthur Foundation on YouTube)

Send an email to Ryan Tate, the author of this post, at ryan@gawker.com.