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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RE[3]: Honesty > etiquette
by sakeniwefu on Thu 7th Aug 2008 01:49
in reply to "RE[2]: Honesty > etiquette"
Member since:2008-02-26
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/706950
Not exceedingly polite.
I also agree that rudeness is better that hypocrisy, though.
Edited 2008-08-07 01:50 UTC
Member since:
2006-02-28
I think you're right; it's best to be honest and polite, but if it's a choice between the two, I'd prefer the honesty. I don't know enough about Linus's personality to comment on it.