Linked by David Adams on Wed 6th Aug 2008 15:28 UTC, submitted by estherschindler
In an "as told to" article for CIO.com, Linus Torvalds explains how he keeps the Linux people and software on-track. Arguably the most surprising facet of Linus' management style is that he's perfectly willing to flame people when he thinks they're wrong--though he's also happy to be corrected himself. "Part of that, by the way, is not feeling shy about saying impolite things or showing some emotion. So I'd rather flame people for doing stupid things and call them stupid, rather than try to be too polite to the point where people didn't understand how strongly I felt about something." That's particularly interesting in light of several OSCON presenters who believe that the way to grow the open source community is to make projects more welcoming to would-be contributors. Do these attitudes actually contradict one another?
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Member since:2005-07-28
I have news for you, you can be polite and honest at the same time.
The problem I see is that everyone tries to be as arrogant as Linus, and when more that one arrogant person is in the same discution things get stuck.
I just see the "honestly" thing as a lame excuse to be rude with the others.
RE[2]: Honesty > etiquette
by iain.dalton on Wed 6th Aug 2008 21:39
in reply to "RE: Honesty > etiquette"
Member since:2006-02-28
Member since:2005-07-06
you can be polite and honest at the same time.
Well, if you work enough with people, you'll realize that there are lots of them, who won't get the point if it's politely coated. Some just need to be told that what they do sucks because otherwise they'll think it's ok to do so the next time too. It's no reason is saying things like "this is good but it would've been better to do it this way" when you don't like it just say it's no good and make them do it the right way. It's the best way to make people learn from their mistakes, and if you cover the mistakes by sugar-talk, they won't ever feel they made any.
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Member since:
2006-02-28
I value honesty much more than I do etiquette. I'm with Linus on this one.