Trevtassie

Sigh, I've never, ever, had a brake block disintegrate on me or even look like it's come close to melting and I've ridden heavily loaded down some pretty big mountains requiring some heavy braking. The swept area of rim brakes is simply too large for that to happen and the standard for rim brakes states they have to be able to descend 7900ft in 30 minutes on a 20% slope without melting.
Yeah, it wasn't an average scenario,I was in, riding down a very steep walking path where I had to keep the speed under control because of pedestrians. But it was more I wasn't expecting for them to fade at all, since they are big brakes and I wasn't loaded. I have had discs fade in similar circumstances when touring though, coming down a steep sealed road with gravel patches where you simply couldn't build up any speed by pulsing them, because gaining any speed was too risky. In that case I had to stop when I started to feel them fade and let them cool down. This partly why I decided to stress test my new larger brakes, to see if I'd have the same problem again.
Point is disc brakes aren't bullet proof and need just as much care as rim brakes do, in terms of braking technique, just in a different way. You need to be careful of rim brakes in the rain and take into account their initial bite will be low until excess water is cleared off the rim, especially if you are using low quality pads. Disc brakes you need to be aware of the heat dissipation by the discs and in certain circumstances such as long loaded or steep descents use pulsed braking to allow the discs to cool.