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25 Years Later: Interview with Linus Torvalds

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Re: 25 Years Later: Interview with Linus Torvalds

#51

Post by bsaul »

coldtea wrote: post #40
qlk1123 wrote: post #18

> Bob: Anything else you want to comment on, either publicly or otherwise? > Linus: I've never had some "message" that I wanted to spread, so ... It's a pity that a man with such influence has no message that he wants to spread, but I can somehow understand this respond. My personal take of this quote can refer to another quote from his TED interview[1]: > I’m an engineer. I’m perfectly happy with all the people who…

> While I wish such leader can speak for values like democracy or human rights, it is just not possible to happen. Why would he have any great insight on "democracy or human rights" compared the average population? Because he wrote successful software?

That is such a true remark. I’ve always been shocked by the unsufferable ego one needs to have to feel authorized to give public statements on complex global issues or life advices.

Re: 25 Years Later: Interview with Linus Torvalds

#52

Post by rujuladanh »

alkonaut wrote: post #21
oraphalous wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>While I wish such leader can speak for values like democracy or human rights... Or maybe people who have no particular expertise in political matters should stop opining so much about them? And maybe we should stop politicising all aspects of culture and existence. There is so much more to life.

There is no feasible way to separate politics from everyday life, and leaving "politics to those who knows about it" isn't really viable. Anyone with a platform whether it is sports, tech, culture should consider what message they are sending. Because there is a message, even from quiet people. "Not politicising" is a political act and statement as well. There is no dodging politics. Saying "I just play football, I l…

I hope you are trolling.

No, I am not going to give any credibility to random Instagram "influencers".

Re: 25 Years Later: Interview with Linus Torvalds

#53

Post by qlk1123 »

oraphalous wrote: post #46
qlk1123 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I got up early this morning to look at the fog that had rolled across the city. Politicise that. If you have been in Seoul or Beijing, this sentence automatically politicises itself. Not fog but smoke though.

Lol - I wrote that expecting the flimsiest of retorts to roll in - knowing they would be good for a laugh. I mean - it doesn't even achieve what it's aiming for. I haven't been in either of those two cities - so by your own logic, my statement isn't political. And either way - it can't be true that my statement would politicise itself. Statements just represent states of the world. It is humans and their beliefs that…

> ... by your own logic, my statement isn't political.

No. NOT P does not necessarily imply NOT Q.

> it can't be true that my statement would politicise itself.

Environments matter. That's why I pointed out those two cities, where your statement can deliver totally different meaning and depth, and cause totally different consequences. Does that make any sense to you?

> Your response is so far from being an intelligible thought... you need to tear it all down and start again. Go slow... maybe test it out on a family member first. Workshop it.

Thanks for the feedback.

Re: 25 Years Later: Interview with Linus Torvalds

#54

Post by gerard2 »

raxxorrax wrote: post #30
alkonaut wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no feasible way to separate politics from everyday life, and leaving "politics to those who knows about it" isn't really viable. Anyone with a platform whether it is sports, tech, culture should consider what message they are sending. Because there is a message, even from quiet people. "Not politicising" is a political act and statement as well. There is no dodging politics. Saying "I just play football, I l…

> There is no feasible way to separate politics from everyday life, and leaving "politics to those who knows about it" isn't really viable. I vehemently agree with the second statement but the first is absurd without further establishing what "politics" means in this context. > If you have listeners you have a responsibility Not everyone listens to admire a person or to see your own views approved. On the contrary, I…

I would say "politics" is organising the life together in all its aspect. With this definition in mind it is pretty much linked to everyday life, in my opinion. So yeah it is pretty feasible to separate one's enjoyment of a foggy morning to taxes or LGBTQ+ rights. But in a democracy this enjoyment is relevant to the ecological policy of your country for exemple and the opinion " I want less air pollution because I like foggy morning" is for me as justified as the next guy's.

Re: 25 Years Later: Interview with Linus Torvalds

#55

Post by iovrthoughtthis »

ben165 wrote: post #3

>Bob: Is there any advice you'd like to give to young programmers/computer science students? >Linus: I'm actually the worst person to ask. I knew I was interested in math and computers since an early age, and I was largely self-taught until university. And everything I did was fairly self-driven. So I don't understand the problems people face when they say "what should I do?" It's not where I came from at all. This i…

Why is it stupid?

Instead of spending hours working to understand and implement a concept / fix. Get other people to do it for internet points.

Seems surpisingly “smart” to me.

It all depends on what you’re optinizing for.

Re: 25 Years Later: Interview with Linus Torvalds

#56

Post by krmboya »

ben165 wrote: post #3

>Bob: Is there any advice you'd like to give to young programmers/computer science students? >Linus: I'm actually the worst person to ask. I knew I was interested in math and computers since an early age, and I was largely self-taught until university. And everything I did was fairly self-driven. So I don't understand the problems people face when they say "what should I do?" It's not where I came from at all. This i…

> You can see how stupid people are when you just read the questions on Stackoverflow today. Nobody seems to figure things out by themselves anymore.

OTOH given the proliferation of tools a programmer uses in their day to day work and the large number of software dependencies these days, you could end up spending all your time figuring out problems with your tools/dependencies, rather than the problem your trying to solve.

Re: 25 Years Later: Interview with Linus Torvalds

#57

Post by flukus »

alkonaut wrote: post #34
flukus wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Anyone with a platform whether it is sports, tech, culture should consider what message they are sending. They do, their message is usually related to their field of expertise. A good sportsman will act as an example of how to be a good sport, how to conduct yourself when you lose, how to be a good winner, etc. A good OS maintainer will set an example through code and their leadership will show the team what is and…

> They do, their message is usually related to their field of expertise. A good sportsman will act as an example of how to be a good sport, how to conduct yourself when you lose, how to be a good winner, etc. A good OS maintainer will set an example through code and their leadership will show the team what is and isn't acceptable. It's rarely that easy. Suddenly you'll be forced to either accept a code of conduct, or…

> Suddenly you'll be forced to either accept a code of conduct, or actively choose not to do so.

A strange example considering codes of conduct are forcing people to become more apolitcal. They force politics into venues were it didn't exist before.

> The footballer will need to decide whether or not to take a knee during the national anthem

Not kneeling is apolitical, it doesn't mean you condone any stance whatsoever.

I'm getting the impression you only want political opinions that you agree with to be shared, s let's take a real political stance that isn't controversial on HN , "Should society accept homosexuality?". For me that's and easy yes and I'm sure most of HN would agree. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume you do as well, correct? Well a sizeable chunk of your country (which ever one it is), most of the middle east, most of Asia, most of Africa, most of Eastern Europe and much of the Latin America disagree (https://www.pewglobal.org/2013/06/04/the-global-divide-on-ho...). Most of the world disagrees in fact.

Are you telling me you want most of them to be spouting "We shouldn't accept homosexuality" on every video of them doing a backflip on a bike?

Re: 25 Years Later: Interview with Linus Torvalds

#58

Post by flukus »

coldtea wrote: post #45
oraphalous wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There is no feasible way to separate politics from everyday life. I got up early this morning to look at the fog that had rolled across the city. Politicise that. > and leaving "politics to those who knows about it" isn't really viable. Viability is relevant to desired outcomes. What outcome do you desire? Is that outcome a political reality? Given you believe everything is politics anyway - we can safely assume yes…

> I got up early this morning to look at the fog that had rolled across the city. Politicise that. "Meanwhile, those in power went on their business as usual, and I was letting them, sending a signal that I'm ok with that, or at least that I wont stand in their way".

That is just absurd, not every hour of every day can be spent in resistance of things you don't like. I doubt you were actively resisting the powers that be while you were sleeping last night, does that mean you were sending them a signal that you're perfectly happy with the way things are?

Re: 25 Years Later: Interview with Linus Torvalds

#59

Post by arendtio »

Stratoscope wrote: post #9
ben165 wrote: post #3

>Bob: Is there any advice you'd like to give to young programmers/computer science students? >Linus: I'm actually the worst person to ask. I knew I was interested in math and computers since an early age, and I was largely self-taught until university. And everything I did was fairly self-driven. So I don't understand the problems people face when they say "what should I do?" It's not where I came from at all. This i…

> You can see how stupid people are when you just read the questions on Stackoverflow today. Nobody seems to figure things out by themselves anymore. I resemble that remark! It was just yesterday that I was looking up a bit of JavaScript trivia, how to format a number rounded to some number of decimal places. Yeah, I'm supposed to be some kind of JavaScript expert, so I could have done the obvious "mdn tofixed", righ…

Yeah, I love the feeling when end up with your own answers... You feel so stupid that you didn't remember, but also happy that you wrote that answer back in the day ;-)

Re: 25 Years Later: Interview with Linus Torvalds

#60

Post by zeropnc »

bsaul wrote: post #51
coldtea wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> While I wish such leader can speak for values like democracy or human rights, it is just not possible to happen. Why would he have any great insight on "democracy or human rights" compared the average population? Because he wrote successful software?

That is such a true remark. I’ve always been shocked by the unsufferable ego one needs to have to feel authorized to give public statements on complex global issues or life advices.

Yeah we live in an age where professional athletes, musicians and celebrities play an integral role in shaping global socioeconomic policy.

What the fuck could possibly go wrong

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