My Swift book is not for everyone.

Oh, by the way, there's a Swift 4/Xcode 9/ iOS 11 update that's free to people who already own the second edition. You can get it at Gumroad or from iBooks.

Anyway, it's not for everyone.

I wrote the book specifically for people who are experienced programmers who are new to Swift. I don't explain some of the concepts that a new programmer might need and I don't cover every nook and cranny of Swift.

I explain all of that up front in the introduction because I want you to be happy if you buy the book.

I don't want someone who isn't in the intended audience to buy the book and decide it is crap.

The book isn't crap. It's just not for them. It's not meant to be for them.

I'm touchy about people who dismiss software as "the worst ever" or hardware as "junk" when what they mean is "it's not for me."

Someone I respect a lot was commenting along with the Apple event the other day and posted, "Is the Apple Watch finally not garbage?"

It really bothered me.

The Apple Watch might not be what he wants from the device.

The Apple Watch might not be priced at a level where it's worth it to him.

He may not like the design of the device.

He might hate the dependency on the iPhone.

He might not like any number of things about the Watch.

But there's a great distance between that and saying that the first two editions of the Watch are garbage.

I'm biased.

Even though the Watch wasn't designed for me, I've come to really like it.

I didn't wear a wrist watch for twenty years and yet there are things that I depend on and miss when I don't have my watch on.

I've written on this before.

It's kind of like swearing.

Use words that help me understand why the Watch falls short for you. Calling it garbage doesn't really communicate anything about the device.

Calling it garbage doesn't help me evaluate whether it now will meet your needs.

Is it finally not garbage?

I don't know. Why did you think it was garbage before? What is it you want and expect from it?

His complaint had nothing to do with my book or with anything I created and yet it hurt me because it's the kind of comment that a creator hears and is unable to address.

It's personal.

It's not constructive.

It might have been intended as a joke.

I might be too sensitive.

The word we use for it isn't garbage - it's trash. Trash talk.

Anyway, my book isn't for everyone.