
Linus: People take me much too seriously, I can't say stupid crap anymore - donatj
https://www.zdnet.com/article/linus-torvalds-people-take-me-much-too-seriously-i-cant-say-stupid-crap-anymore/
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stirfrykitty
I for one despise the political correctness that has occurred/is occurring in
the current online communities. Anything and everything can and will be
misconstrued to suit the needs of the "offended". Offense is taken, not given.
I am sick and tired of the entire SJW mindset that has permeated the WWW and
development circles.

What was "innocent" a few years ago is now grounds for doxxing, shutting down
of accounts, getting people fired, you name it. It seems that "tolerance" is
only tolerated if it is agreed with. Voltaire comes to mind here.

I never thought Linus was in bad form. His project, his rules. Ditto Theo de
Raadt, who I think is a great project leader. I've heard him speak more than
once, and he is a very nice guy. Like most leaders of tough projects, these
guys endure massive amounts of BS from BS artists, and they need to be able to
trounce the idiots and expose them. I have a feeling the majority of people
would disagree with me anymore, but then again, my mindset and attitude were
largely set by the military long ago, so I like strong leaders who don't brook
BS.

~~~
agentultra
I despise the anti-SJW stance. I think it's about time loud-mouth, offensive
people think twice before speaking. You used to have the power to offend
whomever you wanted and now you don't. We haven't lost anything as a society
and have gained so much more: the people who used to bear the brunt of such
bullish behavior can finally have a voice in addition to yours. That's a good
thing.

You're imagining shadows on the wall coming to get you if you think that there
are people literally waiting for you to say something to take your job away.
Meanwhile the people who are picked on do have people doxxing them, emailing
them grotesque photos and death threats, showing up at their houses, etc. I
would bet a good sum of money that you've never had to deal with any of that.

Maybe you should check yourself. Learn some non-violent communication.
Empathize with other people. If we're all kind to one another what is it we
need to be afraid of exactly?

~~~
dsfyu404ed
Keep that straw-man away from the fire lest he burn.

You are intentionally misinterpreting the GP's comment or at least seem to be
from my interpretation. Nobody is annoyed that they can't sprinkle legitimate
criticism with personal attacks. That was never considered normal or ok though
it may have been tolerated in some contexts. People are annoyed that any
direct criticism can be construed as a personal attack.

~~~
manicdee
GGP’s comment is that he can’t keep doing the things he used to do like
calling foolish behaviour “retarded”, slapping the female members of the seam
on the butt in place of the high-five his male colleagues get, or asking
female colleagues out on dates.

The people most upset about being called out by “SJWs” are the ones whose
behaviour is most problematic and exclusionary.

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munchbunny
This is a concept that any leader needs to take to heart.

If you want your words to be taken seriously, you can't simultaneously expect
people to always intuit when you do not mean your words seriously. Since humor
often carries some grain of truth, you have to be careful that your people
don't interpret the wrong grain of truth. I've seen this several times where a
CEO cracks a joke and the employees take it the wrong way, then culture
changes weirdly and nobody realizes that it was a miscommunication over a
joke.

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js2
This zdnet piece doesn't add anything, besides ads, to the Linux Journal
interview which was discussed here yesterday:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19559970](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19559970)

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true_tuna
When I was a child I thought as a child and I spoke as a child, but when I
became a man I put away childish things.

~~~
ricardobeat
It’s nice of you to proclaim superior morals and character, but there is an
underlying story of modern media, society and political correctness that is
relevant here.

~~~
mj_olnir
They weren't proclaiming superior morals, rather quoting a rather relevant
portion of (what a quick Google search determines as) the Christian Bible.

I won't comment on the second half but it only toxifies conversation to assume
the worst in others.

~~~
ricardobeat
> it only toxifies conversation to assume the worst in others

Isn't that what the parent comment did? That's the only reason I commented -
i.e. implying that not being serious equals being childish. Quote or not.

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beering
Sorry Linus, you can't both be BDFL of the world's most popular OS and be able
to "stupid crap". Given the choice between the two, I think it's good he's
taking some time to work on the "stupid crap" part.

~~~
gridlockd
> Sorry Linus, you can't both be BDFL of the world's most popular OS and be
> able to "stupid crap".

Yes you can. He has been BDFL for the "most popular" OS for the _vast
majority_ of its lifetime while occasionally saying "stupid crap". Who is to
say it hurt Linux in any significant way?

Frankly, if you're one of these tone-policing developers (not gonna name
names) then _I_ don't want you on the Linux project. Linux is too important to
be engulfed in this anglo-centric culture war that is going on right now.

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village-idiot
Success comes with its own punishments. The consequences of prestige and power
is that you have to guard your words more carefully, because more people are
paying attention.

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sascha_sl
Don't read the comments... don't read the comments...

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tomohawk
This illustrates the folly of rule/law keeping. You can make all of the codes
of conduct you want, but what they really serve to do is enhance the power of
the rule makers rather make any real progress.

Real leadership is expressed through relationships, not rules. Linus
apologized because he cared about those relationships. He changed his behavior
to enhance those relationships and encourage new ones.

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_bxg1
The irony in this headline is strong

~~~
_bxg1
For context: in another part of the interview he lamented the fact that every
opinion he shares becomes a news headline

