

Linus Torvalds: Pearls before swine - brianwillis
http://torvalds-family.blogspot.com/2011/02/pearls-before-swine.html

======
mixmax
I've done stuff that normal people would consider ubercool - doing illegal
raves, run one of the hottest bars in Ibiza, throwing parties for the jetset.

When seen from the outside it looks amazing - you get to talk to models, you
get free booze, get in for free at all the clubs and have sex with models.

The thing that nobody tells you is that it's hard work. Most of the actors
that go to the oscars aren't there to get drunk or laid, for them it's a
chance to talk shop with their colleauges. When James Cameron is talking to
Natalie Portman he isn't chatting her up, he's trying to get her to star in
his new movie. If, by accident, John Cusack gets drunk at one of the clubs he
gets into for free he'll be all over the tabloids and he won't get that next
role, so he can't do it.

A friend of mine just came back from a tour with a known rock-band. They
worked hard from nine in the morning until after midnight six days a week. The
last day of the week they just wanted to get home to their families. No
screwing around with models, no getting drunk and no clubbing. Just hard work.
The rockstar life is mostly something the media makes up.

Remember that the grass is always greener on the other side. Or as Brad Pitt
once said "Fame's a bitch man"

~~~
nl
On the other hand, there is Charlie Sheen

~~~
bobds
"I exercise regularly. I eat moderate amounts of healthy food. I make sure to
get plenty of rest. I see my doctor once a year and my dentist twice a year. I
floss every night. I've had chest x-rays, cardio stress tests, EKG's and
colonoscopies. I see a psychologist and have a variety of hobbies to reduce
stress. I don't drink. I don't smoke. I don't do drugs. I don't have crazy,
reckless sex with strangers.

If Charlie Sheen outlives me, I'm gonna be really pissed."

From Chuck Lorre, producer of Two and Half Men.
<http://chucklorre.com/index.php?p=329>

------
peregrine
This post put a big stupid grin on my face, just imagining him walking around,
and nobody knowing who he is. Him being far more influential and more
important than most people in the room, and yet having trouble explaining what
he does.

It sounds like a family reunion trying to remember people names and telling
everyone you make web sites for a living.

~~~
jonknee
Though it's getting easier to explain what he does--Android phones are
everywhere these days.

~~~
peregrine
But Android is only a small part of why he is influential and important, it is
the most visible I suppose.

~~~
moe
"Well, I've created the operating system that runs about every 5th
smartphone". "Well, and some other things".

~~~
jonknee
In the US Android is up to about 1/3 of smartphones these days.

------
juiceandjuice
"Hi, I'm Linus"

"Nice to meet you Linus. What do you do?"

"I don't know how to put this, but I'm kind of a big deal"

"Really?"

"People know me."

"Well I'm very happy for you."

"I'm very important. The internet runs off my software and my apartment smells
of rich mahogany."

~~~
SandB0x
"Wow, how much does your software cost?"

~~~
sagarun
"Well, I just give it away for free"

~~~
moomba
"So, its kind of like Windows? That was free with my kid's laptop."

------
ulf
"So here's a shout-out to my new BFF's Jon Hamm and DJ."

Can someone please make it happen that Linus gets an appearance in Season 5 of
Mad Men? He could play an IBM salesman or something like that...

~~~
joezydeco
Get over to Reddit. They're good at making things like that happen.

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ghshephard
It just occurred to me that if I'd gone to the "Night before the Oscars"
party, Linus would have been the only one I'm 100% certain I would have
recognized and been certain about his name.

~~~
staunch
Hello, my name is Linus Torvalds and I pronounce Linux as Leenucks.

~~~
kunley
You wouldn't believe it but for many of us non-native english speakers, _his_
pronounciation is obvious and sounding naturally, while the "english'ized" one
is funny if not ridiculous.. ;)

~~~
Natsu
You're right. Once I learned about "Latin vowels" a lot of things fell into
place in regards to pronouncing foreign names and places.

This goes far outside of just the Latin-derived languages. We use the Latin
alphabet, after all. So if the language can be written with this alphabet
somehow (even if the locals don't usually use it), there's a pretty good
chance that you should assume they use the Latin vowels, too.

No guarantees, but I've managed to surprise more than a few people by
pronouncing things correctly.

~~~
TillE
The difference is that most languages don't reduce so many vowels to schwas.
If you just _pronounce the vowels_ , you'll do much better with non-English
words. And assume i = ee, a = ah, etc.

------
stcredzero
I live next door to a celebrity chef. When I met him, he comes up to me,
introduces himself like he's running for office, then there's this pause
because he's waiting for the typical "regular guy meets celebrity" reaction.
"Haven't you heard of me?"

Nope sorry. As far as I'm concerned you're just my neighbor who doesn't walk
his dog and lets the yard fill up with dog poop.

I much prefer attitudes like Annie Lennox, who once said something about how
it's nice to do your own laundry for a change.

~~~
systemtrigger
I met Billy Bob Thornton in a bar in Minneapolis one night. I'd worked a long
day and was walking back to my hotel room, when I looked over to my left and
saw Billy Bob sitting at a bar with 2 or 3 other people. Well I went in and
grabbed a seat right next to him, ordered some food (wish I hadn't, kind of
rude) and eavesdropped on his conversation. They were talking about baby names
of all things. I knew a joke about baby names, so I nonchalantly told my joke
to a guy whom I later learned was Billy Bob's manager, who told Billy Bob that
he had to hear my joke. Billy Bob turned toward me with the biggest grin I've
ever seen and all I could think was "Don't screw up. He won an Academy Award!"
I somehow nailed my joke and Billy Bob shook my hand as he introduced himself,
"I'm Billy." I must have said something boring afterwards because Billy
politely returned to his previous conversation. That was ok by me, Billy made
my week just sharing a moment of his time and being a nice guy. Glad I met him
instead of your celebrity chef neighbor.

~~~
stcredzero
Was the ordering food the rudeness or the eavesdropping?

~~~
wakeless
This is the socially exceptable form of eavesdropping. You know, where you
make it obvious you are eavesdropping and then enter the conversation.

------
danh
"Tove pissed off Warren Beatty by asking his name not just once, but twice" is
the funniest thing I've read in quite a while.

~~~
lanstein
Reminds me of when a fanatical Mariners fan friend of mine came across Alex
Rodriguez and another player. She promptly went running up to the pair and
exclaimed "Oh my God!! Dan Wilson!!!!!"

~~~
aaronbrethorst
I'm surprised she didn't spit on A-Rod.

~~~
lanstein
He was absolutely livid. This was back when he still played for the Mariners,
in case that wasn't clear. I would have paid anything to have seen his facial
expression.

~~~
ryanisinallofus
Which, in the end is why we couldn't keep him. Sigh.

~~~
ryanisinallofus
Odd down vote. I was just saying he left Seattle, then Texas because he wanted
to be in the limelight. Sheesh!

------
dctoedt
Wow, Linus sleeps 9 hours a night -- maybe the health gurus _are_ right when
they say more sleep makes you more productive.

~~~
synesthesia
That's some flawless reasoning.

~~~
stcredzero
The maybe saves it.

------
alanh
Anyone remember Blake Ross’ reaction blog post to the Time 100 dinner he was
invited to? His website (blakeross.com) has been taken offline and I wasn’t
able to quickly find the post via the Wayback Machine.

~~~
blakeross
Hah, didn't expect to see that while reading this thread. The post is here,
although it's missing CSS and the images from that evening:
[http://web.archive.org/web/20060613002629/http://blakeross.c...](http://web.archive.org/web/20060613002629/http://blakeross.com/2006/05/16/a-toast-
to-serendipity/)

Was definitely a crazy night. I enjoyed reading Linus' post.

~~~
blakeross
BTW, some news from today that's relevant :)
[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=748155473273&set=...](http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=748155473273&set=a.583434525373.2180063.205733)

~~~
alanh
Yeah, I just saw your tweet about this — what a crazy coincidence, a 5-year-
old blog post mentioning red-carpeting in front of Will Smith dragged up as
you announce another meeting.

------
VladRussian
well, sounds like a progress. Linus, the top-geek, finally got invited there.
That means recognition if not from Hollywood circles, yet from a circle near
it.

------
SkyMarshal
Apparently that's the first and only blog post that Linus has given the label
'FULL RETARD'.

------
kbutler
I just wondered how many of the films that were up for oscars used linux in
the production process? (editing, CG, sound, etc.)

~~~
lytfyre
If the movie featured any sort of CGI, they most likely used Linux at least
for the rendering. Windows licences for your entire render farm are expensive.

Autodesk's Maya (A 3D animation modeling and rendering package) is fairly
dominant in the movie industry, actually won a full Oscar in 2002, and is
entirely tri-platform.

------
gnosis
Not that I'm a huge fan of Linus (though I love his operating system), but I'd
rather chat with him than anyone else at the Oscars... unless RMS happens to
be there.

------
kmfrk
To most people, Linus Torvalds is probably "that evil guy on Lost".

~~~
hasenj
Linus (Lie-ness), not Torvalds

------
shirtless_coder
I would be in the same boat. I actually like a lot of movies but I am so
disinterested in the kind of celebrity idol worship that most are that I don't
remember the names of a lot of actors/actresses.

I reserve all my idol worshipping for linus

------
antirez
"since geeks in general are seen as the crème de la crème of society". Strange
statement, my impression is that geeks don't receive at all enough credits.
Every average legal or doctor is a super star compared to a geek at least in
Italy. It is also embarrassing for a society to put on the TV screen everybody
but not the guy that created software that really is running the internet.
Linux and Git are huge.

~~~
jrockway
Sarcasm.

~~~
antirez
Ok, thank you, completely missed the point :)

~~~
ojilles
I read your comment and all I could think was "See? It happens to other
people, too!" :-) (I'm in Italy too btw)

------
bitanarch
That's a pretty good life actually, not being bothered by people outside of
his field constantly.

------
ilamparithi
The title reminded me of "The Fountainhead" quote. Or is it a common one?

------
wicknicks
Glad to know this that Linus had a good time. His contribution to software are
undoubtedly great. But I don't understand what this article has to do with
'hacking' and why is this the most highly rated 'news' article today.

------
billmcneale
"since geeks in general are seen as the crème de la crème of society"

He must be living on a different planet than mine.

~~~
lkozma
Yes, on one that has sarcasm.

------
drstrangevibes
he sounds depressed

~~~
elai
Really? How?

------
TROLLING
Hey shouldn't it be Linus's blog? You would only write Linus' blog if you were
indicating plural possessive such as indicating that it is the Linus family's
blog. Not sure about this one. Could it possibly be that Linus Torvalds made a
mistake? I think so.

~~~
nemeth
Either Linus's or Linus' is acceptable in current English usage. Source:
"James's hat (James' hat is also acceptable"
<http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/621/01/>

------
johngalt
Think of every crucial system running Linux... It seems that this story is
backwards. He should be the celebrity, all these idiots were just in front of
a camera at some point.

~~~
Splines
Please. I agree that our celebrity-focused culture is idiotic, and Linus has
accomplished more than most of us ever hope to, but calling actors "idiots" is
insulting. Most of them work hard just like we do (some harder), and are quite
good at their job.

After all, are you not entertained?

~~~
jff
Remember, it's cool to affect a proud lack of knowledge in many areas
("football, what's that?") but to not know about famous people or things in
computing is simply a sin.

~~~
duhprey
It would be funny to ask someone who was affecting that something like "Then
what have you accomplished?" See I could picture Linus being completely
oblivious to celebrity, there's a seriously big deal that he came up with
while he was busy not watching popular movies.

If the person saying "oh football what's that?" hasn't actually done anything
really impressive then what _are_ they doing if too busy to notice pop
culture? Just living in a cave and staring at the shadows?!

~~~
derleth
> what are they doing if too busy to notice pop culture? Just living in a cave
> and staring at the shadows?!

If they're doing that, then they're doing philosophy.

~~~
stcredzero
Or they're a suburban home dweller with cable and a 50" flatscreen.

