Linus Torvalds defends his right to shame Linux kernel developers

Re:Linus Torvalds defends his right to shame Linux kernel de... by kazagistar on Tuesday July 16, 2013 @02:41PM (#6053870)

While Linus should not be saying that all civility and political correctness are fake, I think there is a valid point to be made. For many people, such things ARE fake, and they prefer environments without it. The key idea, though, is that both are viable options.

There is nothing inherently superior about "I think this patch could use work" vs "This patch is garbage", outside of emotional response, and to some people, the first is actually worse, for the reasons he stated. And just as it would be out of place for someone in google to state "You ought to be expressing your code reviews with less weasel words and more profanity to be more honest", it is wholly out of place for someone to come in to the linux kernel mailing lists and demand everyone stop swearing as much to be more "professional".

They think your communication sucks because it is indirect and dishonest. You think their communication sucks because it is vulgar and excessive. Maybe the best solution is to understand that in a different culture, similar ideas may be expressed differently, and be tolerant of these cultural and personal differences?

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Re:Linus Torvalds defends his right to shame Linux kernel de... by cromwellian on Tuesday July 16, 2013 @02:49PM (#6053931)

How about "This patch has the following problems...." which would be much more conducive to getting the person to fix them, rather than provoking a flame war.

I've been online since the 80s, and I have seen this attitude over and over, that somehow, SHOUTING and INSULTS are "just part of the process" of engineering culture, and if "you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen"

It's really an excuse for people, in many cases with ego problems, to justify behavior that most people find distasteful. It's no wonder many people are turned off from STEM fields where this kind of "alpha male" behavior is wide spread.

We need more Vulcan and less Klingon, especially in fields where people consider themselves intellectually superior, more educated, and supposedly, more rational.

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Re:Linus Torvalds defends his right to shame Linux kernel de... by dobbsbob on Tuesday July 16, 2013 @03:54PM (#6054328)

"more vulcan less klingon" i think bones would disagree. I also don't think Neelix GNU operating system would be any good, it would just keep reaffirming sloppy development until everything fell apart because those people shouldve been dumped at the first habitable planet.

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Re:Linus Torvalds defends his right to shame Linux kernel de... by cromwellian on Tuesday July 16, 2013 @04:01PM (#6054372)

Vulcan ships look less sloppy than Klingon design IMHO.

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Re:Linus Torvalds defends his right to shame Linux kernel de... by jlgreco on Tuesday July 16, 2013 @04:17PM (#6054458)

Aesthetically the Vulcans certainly have the Klingon's beat, but was "Do humans think our ship looks nice?" high up on the list of Klingon design considerations? ;)

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