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Linus Torvalds on his insults: respect should be earned.

TFiR · 720K views · 2014-09-04 · 4:01

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Overview

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.

On Hacker News

HN uses it as the reference for Linus's stance on rudeness and respect in debates about civility and gratuitous negativity.

Recommended by 1 HN people across 1 months · HN mentions 2015–2018

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What people said

yeukhon · 2018-01 · Recommendation

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. [VIDEO] Worth watching.

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fermienrico · 2018-01 · Reference

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] [VIDEO]

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nickbauman · 2015-11 · Reference

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: [VIDEO] Other points of interest: [LINK] [LINK]

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Sources

Video by TFiR, played through YouTube.

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