It is not, of course, about github. It is much simpler. When some scientist met, say, mathematicians, it is very normal to ask - show me what you have done. Or the same thing with writers - Oh, you're writer? What did you wrote.
This thread was about programming, and the given comment was mere a self-assertion. So, it is OK to assert oneself if one wants to. But, show us, then, what you have done.
No. It is desirable that people contribute their answers to questions. It is undesirable for people to respond to those questions not by challenging the substance of the answer, but by questioning the respondent's standing to provide the answer. There is no "but, show us then". You have no status to demand that of anyone here.
I you have lots to say, for instance about modeling natural language as s-expressions, you too can write lots of long comments and blog posts, and we will enjoy reading them. Unlike the short, nasty one you wrote above.
Sure, I have no status, and I have no demands. What I like to do is to distinguish between people who can program and people who just can talk, to form my opinion on what I'm reading. Words are cheap.
Words are cheap if you quote someone else. Probably as you are doing Linus here. Not when they come from genuine experience of being in the wild. I think, we with a fair bit of experience can make a good judgment when we hear someone who doesn’t really knows what he’s saying.
Rest assured these guys here: http://news.ycombinator.com/leaders wouldn’t be there if they could not code. Most of them have detailed profiles for you to check out first, instead of asking them ‘show me the code’ on their every comment on HN.
Writers of novelists have their works publicly available. What about someone who writes documentation for the launch code for nuclear submarines? While I will probably never ever see that documentation, it's really important that it is done well.
A corporate lawyer may produce a whole bunch of excellent work that the outside world never sees. Yet he keeps the company complaint with regulations.
If we were to do "show me the github" for stonemasons, we would want to see the pretty works of art that someone has made and select for that. But what about the guy who worked for 20 years laying the stone to keep the buildings up? He can't show off his work. But if I work in his building every day, I'm going to care a lot more that he was selected based on his ability to choose the stone that keeps buildings up than on his art.
The majority of code never sees the light of day. We are much more like miners than mathematicians in that the public cannot see our immediate work product, only the results after it has worked as a team. If you've never been hired you obviously can have all of your stuff public, but that's just selecting against people who have worked.
This thread was about programming, and the given comment was mere a self-assertion. So, it is OK to assert oneself if one wants to. But, show us, then, what you have done.