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A comment on Linus Torvalds apologizes for his behavior, takes time off. Parent comment

Re:Linus Torvalds apologizes for his behavior, takes time off by efaref on Monday September 17, 2018 @07:04AM (#18004777)
The cost of excessive politeness can be that the person doesn't get the message. I've seen people waste hours on the wrong problem because the person giving feedback was overly polite, and also things just reach an impasse with no progress made because everyone's being too polite to point out the elephant in the room.

I think a better word is "respectful." You can be direct and blunt, as long as you're respectful.

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Re:Linus Torvalds apologizes for his behavior, takes time off by JohnBooty on Monday September 17, 2018 @04:19PM (#18009653)
Is anybody really suggesting politeness as a substitute for clearly stating the problem and expectations?

I mean there are really two axes here, right? You can be rude+vague, or polite+precise, etc.

              Precision
                 ^
                 |
                 |
  Rudeness <-----|-----> Politeness
                 |
                 |
                 v
              Vagueness
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