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- Apr 2, 2011
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This is going to sound crazy, but I can see both sides. Neither of them is right, but both come from a fundamentally reasonable place.
From the left, Linus has touted dickish behavior in the past. Part of his persona is admitting this, and being generally OK with what is going on. His points of a meritocracy are generally measured against the people that are being turned away from development, due to a perceived toxic environment which persists because of the behavior and conduct of current developers.
From the right, Linus gets the job done. The general benefits of a meritocracy are that the job gets done, and as efficiently as possible. You might prevent some people from contributing, but at the end of the day you've got something that works. Damn those without a thick enough skin, as whatever they could offer is not valuable.
I'd like to take this moment to offer nuance. People like Torvald are tolerated because they get the job done. The old phrase is that a 90% solution on-time is better than a 100% solution delivered late and over budget. This general ability to get the job done leads to an associated ego, which makes people impossible to prove wrong until failure strikes them hard. If you want to see this in action, look no farther than Apple. Their products used to "just work," then they became expensive, and now they are overpriced tech 2-3 generations behind (and sometimes can't do the video editing that they are touted as "being the best" at).
Likewise, social justice is a plague. People are claiming intolerance and inequity in areas that they view as somehow oppressive, changing the things which once catered well to their niche, and leaving a burnt-out husk where things used to be. I could highlight Evergreen, Star Wars, or even Battlefield. What I'd like to highlight is Warhammer. A game steeped in intentional non-sense, where they openly call their universe grim-dark. Despite the obvious nature of the parody, SJWs have taken to calling it sexist, taken the Trump God Emperor meme to be...real I guess, and tried to force the introduction of female space marines because it's unfair to not have them. It's trying to take something that does not belong to you, invent umbrage, force change, then leave because you "made everything better." Failing to see that your improvements killed the thing, and left the core audience alienated. GW has avoided this, but some of the other things highlighted did not...sigh.
I say all of this because the current Linux push is to change historic naming conventions without understanding anything about the past. The inclusion of master and slave terms is a topic for debate. Heaven forbid anyone see something like a PATA drive requiring a jumper. While Linus isn't exactly a beacon of reserved and reasonable responses, the proposed conduct code is the pendulum swinging too far in the other direction. Scrubbing everything so that nobody is offended by terminology is inviting too much insanity. Next, we'll not have male and female connectors. I'd like to propose an intermediary ground where toxicity is dealt with, not one where every perceived slight is toxicity.
Hopefully Linux can make that distinction, though for my money it'll probably be a better show than it should be. Torvald is nothing if not vocal. If my baby were being altered to make someone happy, who had no history of actually doing things, I'd be livid. Perhaps less than scorched earth livid, but it'd be impossible not to see where this is coming from. Sometimes coddling those who do not intend to make the coddling worth its required effort is...understandably something to oppose. That does not excuse bullish behavior, but sometimes the effort is worth the price.
From the left, Linus has touted dickish behavior in the past. Part of his persona is admitting this, and being generally OK with what is going on. His points of a meritocracy are generally measured against the people that are being turned away from development, due to a perceived toxic environment which persists because of the behavior and conduct of current developers.
From the right, Linus gets the job done. The general benefits of a meritocracy are that the job gets done, and as efficiently as possible. You might prevent some people from contributing, but at the end of the day you've got something that works. Damn those without a thick enough skin, as whatever they could offer is not valuable.
I'd like to take this moment to offer nuance. People like Torvald are tolerated because they get the job done. The old phrase is that a 90% solution on-time is better than a 100% solution delivered late and over budget. This general ability to get the job done leads to an associated ego, which makes people impossible to prove wrong until failure strikes them hard. If you want to see this in action, look no farther than Apple. Their products used to "just work," then they became expensive, and now they are overpriced tech 2-3 generations behind (and sometimes can't do the video editing that they are touted as "being the best" at).
Likewise, social justice is a plague. People are claiming intolerance and inequity in areas that they view as somehow oppressive, changing the things which once catered well to their niche, and leaving a burnt-out husk where things used to be. I could highlight Evergreen, Star Wars, or even Battlefield. What I'd like to highlight is Warhammer. A game steeped in intentional non-sense, where they openly call their universe grim-dark. Despite the obvious nature of the parody, SJWs have taken to calling it sexist, taken the Trump God Emperor meme to be...real I guess, and tried to force the introduction of female space marines because it's unfair to not have them. It's trying to take something that does not belong to you, invent umbrage, force change, then leave because you "made everything better." Failing to see that your improvements killed the thing, and left the core audience alienated. GW has avoided this, but some of the other things highlighted did not...sigh.
I say all of this because the current Linux push is to change historic naming conventions without understanding anything about the past. The inclusion of master and slave terms is a topic for debate. Heaven forbid anyone see something like a PATA drive requiring a jumper. While Linus isn't exactly a beacon of reserved and reasonable responses, the proposed conduct code is the pendulum swinging too far in the other direction. Scrubbing everything so that nobody is offended by terminology is inviting too much insanity. Next, we'll not have male and female connectors. I'd like to propose an intermediary ground where toxicity is dealt with, not one where every perceived slight is toxicity.
Hopefully Linux can make that distinction, though for my money it'll probably be a better show than it should be. Torvald is nothing if not vocal. If my baby were being altered to make someone happy, who had no history of actually doing things, I'd be livid. Perhaps less than scorched earth livid, but it'd be impossible not to see where this is coming from. Sometimes coddling those who do not intend to make the coddling worth its required effort is...understandably something to oppose. That does not excuse bullish behavior, but sometimes the effort is worth the price.
Wow. WOW
