This kind of toxic snarkism fueled by fratboy within insecure adults produce toxic working culture. Like literally shitting on anything the other person says or does, makes a pretty tough environment to work together.
ESR's email conveys strong negative feedback—as Linus needed—and in the most deeply respectful and complimentary way I've ever seen in an "email rant". Especially from ESR lol. It's very clear that he means it from a heartfelt place and intends it to be productive.
If you read that email and feel snark from it, that's projection on your part, and it speaks to an uncomfortability with criticism in your world view. You might find life happier if you see that people give negative feedback not to shit on you or snark, but because they care and want to see you succeed.
These days, now that people define themselves, people will have their identities wrapped up in the things they make and do. In that case, I'm not sure there's a simple way to keep things from getting personal. That's a job for a rabbi, priest, pastor, mentor, or counselor, not a boss or coworker.
See also: discussing politics, money, diet, weight, etc.
And, yes, I'm disappointed to come to that conclusion. It seems to mean that we have to continually "handle", patronize, and manipulate people for the greater good. I'd rather treat everyone with respect and transparency. I also think I'm not particularly good at dissembling.
I do have a large development team I'm overseeing and every fucking time it's some old dinosaur on the team saying shit like Linus , 'back in my day you werent even born'. Well of fucking course. This just shows how out of touch the previous generation of developers are with the newer generation. I'm glad that 50+ old engineers are no longer around and have tough time getting hired. Frankly people born out of post-Sputnik all share this kind of high mightyness I'm seeing in the industry, shunning all new conventions for rigid old values.
Software is about concensus folks, it's not a follow the leader to the cliff. That's North Korea.
I think in most cases like these, where people are offended by criticism, the problem is primarily a mismatch of social expectations, rather than either party being obnoxious or thin-skinned.
That said, in this case I tend to agree that ESR is doing an fairly good job at presenting his criticism in a constructive way, and it's certainly not too aggressive for Torvalds of all people.
> You are a brilliant implementor, more able than me
> the best one in the Unix tradition since Ken Thompson himself
> genius that you are
> You're our chosen benevolent dictator and maybe the second coming of Ken
> we respect you and like you
I would also point that people focus on snarky comments but forget how much value the commenters bring. If you can't equal that just shut up and listen.
There's a reason why women are leaving tech in droves and why there aren't as many African or Latino engineers. The very people who are toxic are often blind to the fact themselves. How many more fine African American engineers being driven out because they couldn't bear the micro-aggression from caucasian workers?
Eric wasn't shitting on Linus. He was damning with high praise -- telling him that he was so damned smart, eventually it would bite him in the ass unless he adopted practices that normal programmers needed just to manage. Were I to receive such a message I would feel simultaneously chuffed and challenged.
Anyway, Linus could take it -- he's certainly dished out worse.
Tumblrina culture has made it taboo to actually criticize anyone with stern words -- unless you are calling them out for perceived racism, sexism, or some other breach of political orthodoxy.
So, criticizing people based on sex, race, and politics shouldn't be perceived as taboo? We blame Marissa for buying Tumblr? What kind of logic is that?