@rik
For clarification, I'm neither pro NOR non-pro... I'm semi-pro baby!!!! LOL!
I get your points there, but let's say a non-pro asks a pro for a read and the pro politely turns down the request due to whatever personal reason. If the non-pro then thinks that the pro is an asshole, it is truly the non-pro who is entering the territory of the sphincter.
So my point is, the screenwriter need not be an asshole at any point... if the people who don't understand the writer's rationale and get angry, then they are the assholes.
So really, the whole article is trying to justify the fact that it's ok to be an asshole. Well, maybe that's how things are conducted in Hollyweird, but it makes no sense to me. If the writer is nice and polite and even takes the two seconds to explain why he can't read a screenplay and then he's met with "you're an asshole" then it's only confirmation of the fact that he turned down an asshole's script.
See, he could have wrote the article with a positive spin... instead of "no, I won't read your fucking script" and ranting about how much he hates n00bs, he could have written "why I won't read your script, and stop calling me an asshole" and listed his reasons, suggested alternatives and asked for some level of understanding. Fact is, anyone who would call you an asshole after that wouldn't be worth the time- and the smart ones (the ones who'll matter anyway) will understand and at least have some idea WHY and what else they can do instead!
Besides- over 75% of writers spend 90% of the time sitting around thinking (and indulging in distractions), 5% actually writing, 4% away from their computers and 1% making up fake statistics on internet forums so people think they sound like they know what they're talking about.... and those statistics are 99.9% accurate 60% of the time.