Lead PHP Developer Quits

Jasper Bryant-Greene writes "Jani Taskinen, one of the lead developers of the Zend Engine (the engine that powers PHP), as well as a lead developer for the thread safety system and other core components of the PHP project, has quit in a relatively cryptic message to the php-internals mailing list. Jani has been involved with PHP for about 6 years and his loss will undoubtedly be a big blow for the PHP project."

Comments

Looks like...

[brockbr]

Looks like someone may need to wrestle their account back

Looks like a stomp and a doorslam.

[Saven Marek]

This looks like any 15 year old's "I won't be coming back here and you all suck" stormouts. The ones that happen each week, and he'll be back within a few hours.

Why is this on slashdot?

Re:Looks like a stomp and a doorslam.

[hey!]

It's not that different from what adults do though.

Recently, I read an interesting book by a psychologist named Paul Eckman. OK it wasn't an interesting book, it was a tedious book on a fascinating subject.

A couple of the takeways from the book: emotions are persistant mental states that are triggered by situations that bear on your future well being, and in turn trigger certain stereotyped survival related behaviors. In an emotional state, people do not process new information that would contradict the survival behavior. In other words, once you get to fighting, or to running away, you aren't going to listen to reason until you've fought it out or have run far, far away. The psychologists therefore call emotional states refractory, which is a word I learned from EE "Doc" Smith which when applied to metal means hard to work and when applied to a state of mind means hard to work with.

I've sometimes seen job listings looking for people who are passionate about their work. I'm not so sure this the right thing to look for unless you are looking for a short term employee. All jobs involve having your desires frustrated from time to time. As your emotions build up, your ability to process new information and ideas that could help you overcome your frustrations is diminished, because atavistic survival behaviors related to conflict and survival begin to strangle your productiivty.

In that case, the best thing is to take yourself out of the situation, which in all liklihood your own behavior contributes to.

You can take two people who are miserable and underperforming in their jobs, have them swap jobs, and suddenly they'll feel a great relief and surge of productivity, as they work flexibly around the exact same kinds of problems that had them stymied in their original job.

Unless you're some kind of Zen master you're going to run into this sooner or later. When you reach the point where you can't perform up to your potential, even your potential as defined by the less than perfect work situation you're in, it's time to move on. This is probably why academia, infamous for its harsh and pointless politics, evolved the institution of the sabbatical. But for the rest of us, this means quitting and getting a new job.

The emotions expressed in the email are probably universal. They do not in themselves indicate immaturity However, one thing that you do learn as you get older is when you feel strong negative emotions towards other people, hiding them is the best first reaction. In most cases you cannot change other people, especially if you are terminating your relationship to them. So the best you might hope for from negativity in the way you do this is some kind of catharsis, or perhaps some kind of public vindication. However experience teaches you don't often get those, and when you do they aren't as satisfying as you imagined them being.

Above the simple futilty of showing your anger and disappointment, expressions of strong negative emotion evoke an equal, if not stronger reaction from their targets. Often this ignites a round of petty retribution that comes back to haunt you.

So when it becomes impossible to deal with the emotional climate of work, leave. But always leave with a kind and magnanimous word. In the end that serves you best.

Re:Hmmmmm

[laffer1]

But that was at a php conference...

Why is it such a shock to some that a developer got burned out working on the same code. Open source developers are often not appreciated. A few get paid and many don't. Its just constant nagging for new features or bug fixes. There are rewarding aspects too. Maybe he wanted to do something with php that hasn't happened. He was involved with thread safety and that hasn't seemed important to many people. Personally I'd like to see thread safe php so I could play with some of the apache mpms...

Maybe

[Ethan Allison]

Maybe we should stop wondering about him. For all we know, he's got problems with other things in his life. Let's stop making assumptions about the poor guy. If I was Jani and saw all this psychoanalysis going on about me, I'd definitely tell whoever was doing it to shut the fuck up.

Judging him harshly?

[Enderandrew]

Let me get this straight. People are making pretty nasty judgments based on one terse post that may or may not be legitimate. And in that moment we forget and discount everything he has done over the past six years.

As a volunteer he gave a great deal back to the world. You call him childish. I say he is entitled to walk away without having to explain himself.

Re:Good riddance... although a sad one!

[Scarblac]

If they deliver the code and can keep the project together with their style, then can act how they want. Linus, RMS, Theo de Raadt - they have their quirks (Linus much less than the others), but the code speaks for itself.

Since you're going as far as to question Linus suitability for his job (architecting his hobby project that conquered the world) - where's your wildly succesful open source project?

Re:Good riddance... although a sad one!

[Mjlner]

"With an attitude like this, the fact that this chap's leaving, is actually a good news for the future of PHP. No open source project can afford devleopers with such bloated egos. And especially at the top, it's better to have less hot-headed souls, talking in a decent, humane manner."

Bah! You're reading too much into his words. As I see it, what he's trying to say is that the reasons to him leaving are personal, but obvious for some poeple involved. Also, he does not want to start pointing fingers and does not feel he owes anybody an explanation. Perhaps you see this as behaving like a primadonna, but hardly hot-headed behaviour. He doesn't insult anybody in his post, although he obviously wants to and he refrains from whining about whatever he's unhappy about.

Reason: burnout

[pieterh]

Burnout is a very commom symptom in all kinds of volunteer organisations, open source being one of the ones see more about on Slashdot.

The causes are quite straight-forward. When we do something for other people, we need some kind of reward. It can come in many forms - appreciation, money, reputation, status. The best rewards change over time and are a good mix of all these.

Open source projects consume people, with demands on their time, social life, professional capacity. The only rewards tend to be reputation. Depending on the invidual's personal life and other demands (family, job), they can sustain a heavy open source project for a few years, and as many as five or six. At some point, it either becomes a profession (with a wage) or a problem.

All volunteer organisations have this problem and it's exacerbated by peer pressure. If everyone else is spending 80 hours a week hacking, then it seems normal to spend 81. At some points, open source projects can seem like cults, and unintentionally adopt many cult techniques to keep people involved, whatever the personal cost.

(Those techniques include isolation from family, use of secret languages, separation from real time and real life, etc. I don't *think* any OS projects do this on purpose, though I have my secret doubts about the FSF. Just kidding, Richard!)

I've seen burnout cases so severe the persons involved were literally sick, unable to function normally any more, and needing psychiatric help. In other cases it's project-specific. I've had this on open source projects, where after five years I've just abandoned the software, telling the users, "sorry, it's not working any more".

Each person has different needs, but eventually if we don't get what we need, we get sick. Young people are especially vulnerable because they don't understand their own needs very well and neglect them easily.

The upside is that burnout is easily cured by a change of scene and some tangible rewards. Some people even come back to projects they've abandoned, but it can be very difficult. A good dose of selfishness ("what do I need in order to feel happy NOW") is always useful, and a good self-protection measure in many environments, open source groups included.

Re:From IRC, the reason:

[Anonymous Coward]

Israel has the right to defend itself.

Indeed.

However, which one of the four unarmed UN observers killed in the attack was a threat to Israel's existence or its people?

Re:From IRC, the reason:

[pimpimpim]

Hmm, the poster of this log seems to have a history of posts marked 'Troll', which might be an indication.

Still, someone would have a reason to make a fake irc log in this direction, which can only be done if they'd have a personal grudge against this guy. So if this log is not fake, then it's probably good for everyone that he quit, if it is fake, then it's also clear why there was an atmosphere for him to quit.

The fact that people reason like the one in this log is really shocking, but true. People didn't seem to have learned anything about that we really need to be careful judging people: Not all muslims are terrorists, not all jews are responsible of this action of the Israeli government. Not all people put on the blacklist by air marshalls are a threat for your country. Thinking in black/white contrasts is not only bad for others, it is also very bad for yourself!

Re:Good riddance... although a sad one!

[Bogtha]

With an attitude like this, the fact that this chap's leaving, is actually a good news for the future of PHP. No open source project can afford devleopers with such bloated egos. And especially at the top, it's better to have less hot-headed souls, talking in a decent, humane manner.

Okay, you've accused him of:

• having a bad attitude,
• having a bloated ego,
• being hot-headed and
• acting in an inhuman manner

All this from simply quitting and not wishing to be associated with a project any more? He didn't accuse anybody of anything, he didn't rant and rave, he said he was leaving and wasn't coming back. How is that anything like the attitude you describe?

Re:Shock!

[caluml]

The phrase "I could care less" is a sarcastic version of "I couldn't care less."

As a Brit, (a nation with arguably some of the best sarcasm/irony in comedy), I would say that I don't find it sarcastic in the least. It just sounds absurd and stupid.
So, if you're using it for sarcastic effect, don't bother.

Re:Good riddance... although a sad one!

[Dhalka226]

Since you're going as far as to question Linus suitability for his job (architecting his hobby project that conquered the world) - where's your wildly succesful open source project?

One needs a wildly successful open source project to criticize somebody's leadership of some other wildly successful open source project?

I suppose that one would also need to be the leader of a country with population of 300 million to criticize the job performance of the US president. Or perhaps be a highly respected engineer with specialty in safety to know that the Ford Pintos bursting into flame at the slightest provocation a couple decades ago wasn't a good thing.

Please.

Israel is not "attacking the civilian population"

[HighOrbit]

Civilians are caught in the crossfire. That is horrible. But Israel is not purposely "attacking the civilian population" as you allege. Israel is attacking military targets that Hezbollah has purposly intermingled amongst civilians. In fact, Israel has taken pains to inform civilians (and thereby tip off Hezbollah too) before attacks by dropping leaflets that basically say "We know there is a Hezbollah ammo dump here, flee now because we will attack soon". Hezbollah purposely endangers the civilans in Lebanon by hiding amongst them. It does this to 1) make the Israelis pause and be reluctant to immediately attack, and 2) when the Israelis do attack, Hezbollah wants to increase the civilian bodycount so they can say "See all the civilans Israel killed!".

If you want to talk about purposely "Attacking Civilians", then you should be pointing the finger at Hezbollah. They are lobbing unguided missles at Isreali cities. When they launch a missle, they can't tell in advance where it will land other than somewhere inside a city. This is indiscrimate bombing of a civlian population.

No state, including Israel, can tolerate either unprovoked attacks on its military or any attack at all on its civilian population. Hezbollah is not a state. It has no sovereign right to maintain an army or make war. Those are rights restricted to states. Any armed action at all by Hezbollah is illegal. Even if it had the right to maintain an army (which it does not) it engages in tactics that are forbidden by international law (hiding amongst civilians, purposely attacking civilians, etc). It's military arm exists for two illegal reasons : threaten Israel and intimidate other Lebanese.

If Israel stops before Hezbollah is either disarmed or destroyed, it will have a continuing military threat on its border; a threat that indiscriminatly attacks its civilian population. No reasonable state will tolerate that as an end solution.

Here is they way this should play out. The UN has already ordered Hezbollah to disarm. See UN resolution 1559. The resoluation calls for removal of Syrian troops (done), deployment of Lebanese Gov't forces in southern Lebanon, and disbanding of all Lebanese militias (meaning Hezbollah since they are the only one left). Hezbollah has refused to disband and has blocked deployment of the Lebanese Army (Hezbollah is stronger). For resolutation 1559 to be carried out, Hezbollah will have to be forecebly disarmed (by Lebanon [not going to happen], by a UN force [too squimish to happen], or by Israel [now you see what is going on]. Once Hezbollah is disarmed or distroyed, then a new stronger UN force (current UN force is a joke) or NATO force will occupy southern lebanon, and allow the Israelis to withdraw. Once the Israelis (and Hezbollah) are gone, then the Lebanese Army and Police will deploy into the south and secure the border. This is the only long term solution for peace. An immediate cease-fire and return to status-quo-ante is only a recipe for continued periodic warfare. Hezbollah must disarm or be destroyed for long term peace to have a chance.

Re:From IRC, the reason:

[Just Some Guy]

Jani just returned from a 6 month peace-keeping tour in Afgahnistan, one of his co-workers was killed in what was called a deliberate attack on a UN position.

I was part of the peacekeeping mission in Mogadishu, Somalia. Several of my "co-workers" were killed in very deliberate attacks against US and UN forces. However, if I came home and said that I wanted to join Aryan Nations to kill me some black people, I'd be (rightfully) shunned from polite society.

I can empathize with Jani, probably more than can 99.9% of Slashdotters, but that doesn't make his outburst acceptable. Understandable, sure, but acceptable.

Re:From IRC, the reason:

[robinjo]

If it's true, that's a nice little bit of anti-Semitism at the end. He may want to be anti-Israel, but he's just exposed himself as a garden-variety anti-Semite, too.

Writing as a fellow Finn, I can assure you that most people here don't know the difference between Jews and Israel. I'm sure Jani only has hard opinions against the government and the politics of the Israel state.

Furthermore, I really think that the anti-semitist card has been used for far too long already. Hitler did a horrible crime against Jews but Israel shouldn't use that to gain political advantage any more. Israel is not the weak little victim in this conflict.

Come on guys..

[Zds]

Yeah, it does. When someone states that they want to join the Nazis to genocide a race, that should be public information. 2AM on IRC or not, it's obvious he meant it.

I think many of you guys need to readjust your sense of proportionality. This guy has most likely done more to both world peace _and_ open source world than 99% of the whiners on this forum.. and now you are mocking him for not revealing some interpersonal issues and saying ill-considered things in chat *once* when obviously being out of his mind.

Consider this. That guy has
1) worked deeply on a project for six years and has just made a decision to quit it,
2) has just lost a coworker in a bit questionable series of events,
3) is obviously depressed or burned out or both,
4) is constantly under threat while serving in hostile country with no infrastructure of whatsoever and having to remain calm and peaceful while in desperate situation and underpowered,
5) has had harder than normal time in service past six months and
6) people are blaming you for not answering their *software project* emails fast enough, when you have been busy with things 4 and 5.

If you can say you have experienced even *half* of these, let alone simultaneously and are willing to come up and admit it, *then* I can take you seriously when you come and say that you didn't say anything unprintable in that situation. Maybe.

And also remember: english is not his native language. It's more than a bit hypocritical to judge someone you have not even met by his writing in *chat* in *foreign language*, especially when the chat log is spread without his consent by someone who is not willing to reveal his name, nor the context of the discussion.