I find that I sometimes act like the 'assholes' in this essay. However, the attitude of the person asking the question seems to affect me a lot: I tend to be a lot more of a jerk to people who have a very high opinion of their skills and ask beginner questions than to people who readily admit that they're just learning.

Why? Because I like the implicit acknowledgement of my superiority? Because people who think they're great when they aren't are annoying? Who knows. Note that I'm not condoning my own behavior here, just observing it.