You have to be careful with that though. We've had a few people who'd "channel Torvalds", so to speak, by parroting his opinions with abrasive fervour. Any dissenters were treated as either thinking they knew better than him, or being ignorant of his work, or not having an appropriate appreciation for his work. And since Torvalds is very opinionated, so were they. It wasn’t exactly a fun work environment.
I’d also like to challenge the premise of the question. Being a maintainer for example is just as valid as being a “builder.” In fact, you’ll probably gleam more wisdom from being a maintainer than a builder since you are, by definition, trawling through other people’s code and maintaining it.
Look, it’s perfectly valid to consider someone’s body of work while considering their opinions. But dismissing them out of hand is wrong, in my opinion.
I agree with everything you said, especially with how important the role of the maintainer is to get something that keeps working over time (both are builders). And yes, holding someone else opinions strongly doesn't make you instantly a clone of Torvalds, thing that in workplaces with n>1 employees might not be desirable.
You have to be careful with that though. We've had a few people who'd "channel Torvalds", so to speak, by parroting his opinions with abrasive fervour. Any dissenters were treated as either thinking they knew better than him, or being ignorant of his work, or not having an appropriate appreciation for his work. And since Torvalds is very opinionated, so were they. It wasn’t exactly a fun work environment.
I’d also like to challenge the premise of the question. Being a maintainer for example is just as valid as being a “builder.” In fact, you’ll probably gleam more wisdom from being a maintainer than a builder since you are, by definition, trawling through other people’s code and maintaining it.
Look, it’s perfectly valid to consider someone’s body of work while considering their opinions. But dismissing them out of hand is wrong, in my opinion.