I'm in the group that agree w/ Linus and disagree w/ user Columbo. Columbo may be a manager, but Linus is a leader.
Leader of thousands of software developers, a leader that inspires.
A manager is someone you can fire and you software company works better.
Linus on "acting professionally"
371–380 of 505 posts
Re: Linus on "acting professionally"
#372And sounds a lot like Steve Jobs.
Re: Linus on "acting professionally"
#373A lot like Steve Jobs.
Re: Linus on "acting professionally"
#374Linus is dead wrong here. When he says acting professionally means "fake politeness, the lying, the office politics and backstabbing, the passive aggressiveness, and the buzzwords", he's attacking a straw man: none of that behaviour is professional, and to say that professional behaviour must degenerate to that behaviour is a stretch at best. Aggression is not warranted in a professional environment; neither overt (a…
I think he might have a point. Every now and again I receive an email from a customer (of ApiAxle) who is asking questions obviously not having read documentation or replies or something else which riles me. I respond to them in a calm, polite manner which might not be how I'm feeling, so, it's a lie, of sorts.
Re: Linus on "acting professionally"
#375Earlier quoted context omitted.
You'd not take intelligence over ‘being pleasant’? I tend to enjoy the company of an intelligent asshole more than that of a ‘pleasant’ idiot any day.
I can spend good, fulfilling and interesting times with a 'pleasant' idiot friend. Intelligent assholes, on the other hand, besides some intellectual discussion in their field of expertise, I would pass on their company. But, since this is about people within the workspace, I guess the intelligent asshole would, sometimes, be preferable to some polite but less intelligent person. The other one would still be an assho…
Whether if "profanity" is involved in the speech or not, if someone is prone to blowing up in a rage of anger, I do not enjoy being around such a person. Depending on the details, it might be worth understanding what makes them upset and trying to avoid it, but it seems to me that a lot of the time some people are just overly angry.
I recently witnessed some programmer going to town, blasting out a supply cabinet. Hurling rage and profane insults at a supply cabinet just seems... uncalled for, to me. My personal evaluation is that the guy needs to learn to not let little things bother him so much. Though I doubt the supply cabinet was offended.
Re: Linus on "acting professionally"
#376You don't get to tell Linus what is or isn't professional. He has led one of the most important human endeavours of the last hundred years. However he decides to get that done is his business. Call it rude or impolite, call it thoughtless or insulting, but don't call it unprofessional. If there's one thing that nobody can dispute, it's that Linus knows how to get shit done and knows how to run an effective team. Ther…
> They'll struggle to build that team, because Linus is deeply trusted with the stewardship of the kernel, in no small part because of his "unprofessional" behaviour.
If I gave examples of other very successful open source projects in which the project maintainers act courteously, would you change your mind?
Re: Linus on "acting professionally"
#377Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or maybe he's just so talented that he can carry a huge interpersonal handicap. Actually, this email is pretty polite and to-the-point. I don't know exactly what it is that he said that was offensive in private, but he's actually being pretty reasonable here. The thing is, some people spend a lot of effort when writing to check that they don't accidentally leave "sharp edges" in their writing (and then they still fai…
>I don't know exactly what it is that he said that was offensive in private, but he's actually being pretty reasonable here. I think what's being discussed is Linus' reaction to someone's patch on the lkml a few days ago. https://lkml.org/lkml/2013/7/13/132 Here is a preview: >What the F*CK, guys? >This piece-of-shit commit is marked for stable, but you clearly never >even test-compiled it, did you?
That's a good way to ensure that people will test-compile patches in the future before submitting.
Re: Linus on "acting professionally"
#378I know now what I could tell to a young nerd who's been bullied: Don't worry, later you'll be able to do the same I guess it's a great example for young peoples that you can get away with any despicable behaviors as long as you have done something worthwhile in your life. People are then able to rationalize that by saying it was "warranted" or "thought provoking" or any garbage they can find to justify it, because so…
No, it's not ridiculous. If building a bridge were the context, and someone built a piece that would collapse the bridge, I'd fully expect any foreman to say "What the fuck is that?" "That is shit". And I'd fully expect any worker to say "Yeah, damn, you're right, that was stupid. Cheers, I'll fix that" People didn't start building stuff in the digital era., It's the same principles. I hope to hell all crap gets call…
You still haven't proved it's more efficient, here for example is a study[0] showing that self-blame is counter-productive.
Also, your example is actually a good example of why this technique is not only inefficient, but morally and ethically wrong, because if a single worker can destroy a bridge, then there is a couple of engineers that didn't do their jobs correctly.
[0] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S019188691...
Re: Linus on "acting professionally"
#379Earlier quoted context omitted.
"We could all do with a lot more of number two, don't take anything personally." This is really a Postel's Law situation. Yes, your life will be improved if you can receive bad behavior and not take it personally. But it would be a shitty world to live in if this burden was only on recipients. The only robust way to maintain a worthwhile society is to expect, in the general case, that adults will have control of thei…
Well I agree with you based on the 2nd agreement only . But really what I should have said was we could see a LOT more use of the FOUR agreements out of everyone. Being impeccable with your word takes the "burden" off of the recipient, which of course is the first agreement.
Ah. I might have misread the emphasis on that one point.
Re: Linus on "acting professionally"
#380Linus is awesome. He gets things done. He calls out bullshit when he sees it. And he doesn't afraid of anything.