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Linus Torvalds: 'I'll never be cuddly but I can be more polite'

bbc.co.uk

41–50 of 483 posts

Re: Linus Torvalds: 'I'll never be cuddly but I can be more polite'

#41
Anyone else get a chuckle that out of the myriad of relevant quotes, the author selected, "He... once [described] an Intel fix as 'complete and utter garbage'".

Good for Linus, I'm happy that he's not looking to adjust his technical expectations:

"technically wrong is still technically wrong, and I won't start accepting bad code just to make people feel better about themselves."

Re: Linus Torvalds: 'I'll never be cuddly but I can be more polite'

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I do have concerns about the CoC being used for political purposes That's the CoC's entire purpose. Its author (the same person behind the post-meritocracy manifesto) has said that yes, the CoC is a political document.

What is a "post-meritocracy manifesto"? It sounds ... opposite from everything I thought we've all been fighting for in the tech community, but I could be wrong? :-S

You're not wrong. It means diversity quotas are being pushed and excellence is no longer pursued (or at least it's not the first metric).

Re: Linus Torvalds: 'I'll never be cuddly but I can be more polite'

#43
post #10

If not for this guy - we wouldn't have Linux. I'd much rather work with honest person that can tell me how he really feels then nice spoken liars.

That’s essentially a cliché false dichotomy. Wouldn’t it be even nicer to work with someone who can express how they feel in a constructive and helpful manner?

While everyone was spending their time learning how to be nice - this guy actually sat down and built something useful.

Re: Linus Torvalds: 'I'll never be cuddly but I can be more polite'

#44
post #10

If not for this guy - we wouldn't have Linux. I'd much rather work with honest person that can tell me how he really feels then nice spoken liars.

So you are either a truthful asshole or a kind liar? There are no people who are kind and honest?

I don't know, but the idioms of the "white lie" and "polite fiction" certainly imply some connection between impoliteness and truth-telling, don't they?

Re: Linus Torvalds: 'I'll never be cuddly but I can be more polite'

#45
post #4

It's interesting that Torvalds describes himself as "not a people person", when he's a gifted communicator who has been tremendously successful at managing the community around Linux over many years. His current refinements are making a great thing even better.

He communicates well but on a task instead of things about people per say. Someone like him for instance isn't sure about how to respond say Sandra having a baby and would have to ask if it is good news or not but he knows how to process say increasing multithreading is important in the Kernel but there are competing security issues he knows how to coordinate there to patch Heartbleed and its ilk.

Re: Linus Torvalds: 'I'll never be cuddly but I can be more polite'

#46
Here we go normalizing verbal abuses to just "not being polite enough". This culture is now so pervasive in our industry that people are wearing their rudeness to their fellow coworkers as a badge of honor. I have seen incredibly meek guys on the outside turn into monsters as soon as they get into their roles of lead devs or tech leads. Repeat after me - "Kindness is cool."

Re: Linus Torvalds: 'I'll never be cuddly but I can be more polite'

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s essentially a cliché false dichotomy. Wouldn’t it be even nicer to work with someone who can express how they feel in a constructive and helpful manner?

Linus wrote emails all day every day for 15 years and like once a year he'd go off on somebody. It's not a false dichotomy, because nobody's perfect. You're gonna have flaws, they're gonna come out on bad days, and at that point you've got a few options for what kinds of flaws you prefer.

he has generated an veritable everest of writing and some people want to focus on a few of the rocks.

Re: Linus Torvalds: 'I'll never be cuddly but I can be more polite'

#48
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I do have concerns about the CoC being used for political purposes That's the CoC's entire purpose. Its author (the same person behind the post-meritocracy manifesto) has said that yes, the CoC is a political document.

Of course a Code of Conduct is a political document.

That's worrying, it shouldn't be.

- Ethics are things the overwhelming majority of humans agree on.

- Politics are not.

Edit for 'edent' below due to rate limit:

Were you replying to someone else? My comment mentioned the majority of people agree on ethics. Racial, gender, sexual preference and religious discrimination isn't considered OK in most western countries.

Additionally, you're derailing the discussion by talking about discrimination. The entire reason this thread was started was because there's concern that that the CoC doesn't merely ensure ethics, but (as mentioned in the examples in this thread) has been used to harass people for what most humans would consider ethical behavior.

Re: Linus Torvalds: 'I'll never be cuddly but I can be more polite'

#49
I question the professional experience of those suggesting that continuing to be an asshole is the preferable situation here ("but at least he's HONEST"). That would simply not fly at my company.

It is absolutely possible to be kind when giving honest and constructive feedback and criticism. Empathy is a skill this industry needs to develop.

Re: Linus Torvalds: 'I'll never be cuddly but I can be more polite'

#50
The idea of faking it until you make it is exactly what Linus needs. Most of the point of communication is for the other person, especially giving feedback on patches. We all need to vent but we shouldn't vent at the people below us in an organization. Venting is for a counselor, and maybe a close peer? And it's ok if he's frustrated with people, he just shouldn't take it out on them.

Maybe he could find someone to get his own frustrations out to, while only sharing the productive, practical code related aspects with his developers.

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