Linus Torvalds apologizes for his behavior, takes time off
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Linus Torvalds apologizes for his behavior, takes time off
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Re: Linus Torvalds apologizes for his behavior, takes time off
#2This week people in our community confronted me about my lifetime of not understanding emotions. My flippant attacks in emails have been both unprofessional and uncalled for. Especially at times when I made it personal. In my quest for a better patch, this made sense to me.
I know now this was not OK and I am truly sorry. The above is basically a long-winded way to get to the somewhat painful personal admission that hey, I need to change some of my behavior, and I want to apologize to the people that my personal behavior hurt and possibly drove away from kernel development entirely.
Now that’s something I never in a million years thought he’d be capable of thinking, never mind admitting in public, without reservations. I sincerely hope that it sticks, and the result is good not just for the community, but Linus himself. Good luck, and I hope people give him the chance to make good on his attempt to grow as a person. It takes a lot of courage to be this vulnerable in public, especially when you know and that you hurt people.
Re: Linus Torvalds apologizes for his behavior, takes time off
#3Thats very mature of him. Hats off.
Re: Linus Torvalds apologizes for his behavior, takes time off
#4Maybe this will finally end the myth that "you can be rude and insulting as long as you're right" that people seem to attribute to Linus's outbursts
Re: Linus Torvalds apologizes for his behavior, takes time off
#5Good for him, I wonder how this will affect kernel development though.
“Benevolent dictator for life” might not scale. And it might sound horrible; but there are some strengths involved that I feel the Linux project benefits greatly from.
I figure that Linus has insulated himself very well with competent leaders, but, I don’t have much insight-
Re: Linus Torvalds apologizes for his behavior, takes time off
#6Safe-space kids got to the king of the moutain and dethroned him.
Re: Linus Torvalds apologizes for his behavior, takes time off
#7Maybe this will finally end the myth that "you can be rude and insulting as long as you're right" that people seem to attribute to Linus's outbursts
We'll still have Theo.
Re: Linus Torvalds apologizes for his behavior, takes time off
#8> I am going to take time off and get some assistance on how to understand people’s emotions and respond appropriately.
Wow. Torvalds going to a therapy. I seriously couldn't be more impressed about him, because he always seemed too much of a narcissist to me. I understand how difficult it might be to decide to admit that you have a problem at this stage. And for doing that, he has my deep respect.
Which kind of brings me to the other point - would Torvalds be Torvalds if he was treated before? Is the same piece of his personality that made him a truly unpleasant person also the one that made him super motivated?
That's the second BFDL stepping down (this one claims to go just for a while), after Guido. And note that this is one is also about psychology.
Re: Linus Torvalds apologizes for his behavior, takes time off
#9It's about fucking time. I personally stay away from software created by people who lack empathy; technical goodness !> creating a good environment and product for actual people. I don't go to restaurants run by douchebags either, no matter how good the food might be.
And Git has the UX of software created by someone with no empathy.
I hope Linus heals from this, and I hope the culture of the Linux community changes as well, but that will take years to get past his past behavior.
Re: Linus Torvalds apologizes for his behavior, takes time off
#10> I am going to take time off and get some assistance on how to understand people’s emotions and respond appropriately. Wow. Torvalds going to a therapy. I seriously couldn't be more impressed about him, because he always seemed too much of a narcissist to me. I understand how difficult it might be to decide to admit that you have a problem at this stage. And for doing that, he has my deep respect. Which kind of brin…
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