Negative experiences create far stronger memories. That's just how the brain works. You can walk great distances and barely remember the places you passed through, but if you step on a nail at some point you'll never forget that event. That memory is simply much stronger than the others.

How many email messages does Linus send in a year? How many of those messages contain rants so epic they get posted here? I bet it's less 1% of all messages. Yet everyone remembers those messages and what they say. He might not be polite, but he gets his point across.