Slashdot Mirror
The New Yorker on Linus Torvalds (newyorker.com)
Linus Torvalds announced on Sunday that he was sorry for how he treated the community over the years. Torvalds, 48, said he planned to make some changes to how he conducted himself, and on that part, he said he would be taking some time off from Linux kernel development work. The New Yorker has published a story on Torvalds today in which it notes that it reached out to Torvalds days before he made the big announcement. From the story, which may be paywalled for some readers: Torvalds's decision to step aside came after The New Yorker asked him a series of questions about his conduct for a story on complaints about his abusive behavior discouraging women from working as Linux-kernel programmers. In a response to The New Yorker, Torvalds said, "I am very proud of the Linux code that I invented and the impact it has had on the world. I am not, however, always proud of my inability to communicate well with others -- this is a lifelong struggle for me. To anyone whose feelings I have hurt, I am deeply sorry."
Torvalds's response was conveyed by the Linux Foundation, which supports Linux and other open-source programming projects and paid Torvalds $1.6 million in annual compensation as of 2016. The foundation said that it supported his decision and has encouraged women to participate but that it has little control over how Torvalds runs the coding process. "We are able to have varying degrees of impact on these outcomes in newer projects," the statement said. "Older more established efforts like the Linux kernel are much more challenging to influence."
Linux's elite developers, who are overwhelmingly male, tend to share their leader's aggressive self-confidence. There are very few women among the most prolific contributors, though the foundation and researchers estimate that roughly ten per cent of all Linux coders are women. "Everyone in tech knows about it, but Linus gets a pass," Megan Squire, a computer-science professor at Elon University, told me, referring to Torvalds's abusive behavior. "He's built up this cult of personality, this cult of importance."
Torvalds's response was conveyed by the Linux Foundation, which supports Linux and other open-source programming projects and paid Torvalds $1.6 million in annual compensation as of 2016. The foundation said that it supported his decision and has encouraged women to participate but that it has little control over how Torvalds runs the coding process. "We are able to have varying degrees of impact on these outcomes in newer projects," the statement said. "Older more established efforts like the Linux kernel are much more challenging to influence."
Linux's elite developers, who are overwhelmingly male, tend to share their leader's aggressive self-confidence. There are very few women among the most prolific contributors, though the foundation and researchers estimate that roughly ten per cent of all Linux coders are women. "Everyone in tech knows about it, but Linus gets a pass," Megan Squire, a computer-science professor at Elon University, told me, referring to Torvalds's abusive behavior. "He's built up this cult of personality, this cult of importance."
Plenty of people out there see any sort of strong self-confidence as "jerk behavior." In fact the more insecure the individual, the more hopelessly assholeish your confidence will appear to them.
That is not an excuse, to be honest. I mean, you don't like talking to other people yet most people would consider you to be a nice guy. Same here, generally speaking. There is no need to be a dick in order not to talk to other people.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
I know quite a few female engineers and some scientists. None of them have a problem with being called out when they screw up. All of them do it to others as well. And all of them can very well distinguish between a personal insult and language directed at their work but not at them. I don't think any of them would have any problem with the style of Linus or the kernel core team.
Incidentally, I had some interactions with the core Linux team from some bug reports I made and I found them to be very focused, but in no way arrogant or insulting or the like. They just have a lot to do and a lot of responsibility and really want to get the job done well. I fully approve of that attitude.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Apparently you can suggest women are generally weak, sensitive and easily insulted without being sexist. Personally, I find such suggestions hugely misogynistic.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
>There is no need to be a dick in order not to talk to other people.
The problem here is, "being a dick" is highly subjective and ambiguous.
We have plenty of other, proper words to describe activities where a person more specifically, materially infringes upon another in unambiguous ways (assault, threats, libel, etc.)
So what is being an "asshole" or "dick" actually? It's almost exclusively a judgement made by 50% of those in the specific scenario. One person feels another person had emotionally disappointed them. How easy is it to go through life accomplishing greatness in any area, and at the same time making sure every single person you come in contact with, has their particular personal sensibilities pandered to?
I would also submit that a key component of "being an asshole" involves not following other peopes' desires. But if anything, this is a definition of what a pioneer is. Someone who does their own thing. If you have an associate that you want to behave a certain way, and he behaves differently, it's easy for you to paint him as an "asshole", but maybe his different way yields something that is much more valuable to the community than your acceptances of his demeanor?