TFiR
1 HN recommender · recommended in 3 months, 2015–2018
4:01 · 720K views · Sep 4, 2014
A short TFiR clip in which Linus Torvalds explains his view that respect should be earned rather than given, in defense of his blunt and insulting style.
HN uses it as the reference for Linus's stance on rudeness and respect in debates about civility and gratuitous negativity.
4 comments from Hacker News
I do agree his language and tone can be very painful to read. Imagine getting called a moron in front of the whole world, when you could have private conversation first with a smaller group. When I read his reply, I could feel the pain. I imagined I would reply back to him and say "well fuck you too." When I finished reading the email, regardless of who is more right or more wrong, I can understand and feel his frustration. I would absolutely go mad if someone messes with something I care about, and then have the guts to do fact checks. But I still think there is room to offer an olive branch, honestly. But given how busy he is, and how many shitty patches they get, I can understand his frustration. That being said, it almost seems like no one other than him, can do a better job in keeping up with the quality if he has to be the one yelling all the time. When Linus is no longer involved (for any reasons), can Linux kernel project continues to have quality code? A couple years ago Linus shared his views on insult: respect should be earned. this video Worth watching.
this video But I honestly fall into the other camp that believes respect should be given freely. BUT that lasts until you open your mouth and say something stupid. I've had "discussions" with people about whether or not MAtz Ruby had a GIL. You don't get my respect for holding that opinion and I have better things to do with my time than worry about your feelings. There's a clear difference between someone with a differing opinion and someone with a flawed thought process. I'm ok with a person telling me C++ is the most horrible thing since sliced bread despite my love for the language. I'm not ok with someone telling me allocation/deallocation in C++ is slower than C# because some article on the internet talked about allocation without going into the cost of deallocation. One of those is understandable, the other is flat out wrong and if you choose to hold to that opinion then you're going to get dismissed as someone whose thought process is too faulty to trust. And I have better things to do with my time.
People are less creative when they feel disrespected. If you're running a military or places like UPS, where your work value can be boiled down to time and motion studies, it makes a ton of sense to break down people's sense of self: they are being asked to become machines, after all. Torvald's recent screed on Management via perkele , where rudeness is encouraged, interestingly, was born from his time serving in the Finnish military. Could Linux be even better if he dropped this mentality? Maybe. He insists that by being rude you stop tacit political behavior which would undermine technical excellence. But this seems contradictory. Management by perkele is by definition a form of tacit politics. Torvalds position: this video Other points of interest: [LINK] [LINK]
Of all replies defending Linus I've read, this one hits home run. Linus himself admits[1] that his outrageous insults are sort of "jokey" and a hyperbole. That's the surface. The underlying tone is to get attention without getting drowned by political correctness. [1] this video