How to Stay Sane (2023)

un.curl.dev

67 points·8organicbits··8 comments

Wasn't user aggression a factor in the orchestration of the xz attack? At this point, any aggression (at least in an Open Source project) must be dispelled not just because it's rude but also because of potential malicious implications.

Yes; you can see a collection of the high-pressure comments at https://research.swtch.com/xz-timeline. (E.g., "Submitting patches here has no purpose these days… It is sad to see for a repo like this." "You ignore the many patches bit rotting away on this mailing list. Right now you choke your repo.")

> as long as they are rude I respond with longer and longer intervals.

Your silence is a perfectly acceptable response to rude people.

“Bugs are not scary”

Generally agree with this section. In my experience bugs are at best a nuisance, at worst a fun puzzle to solve.

You know what’s scary? New requirements. Those can completely up-end your program’s entire design and even just thinking about their future existence can cause you to do all kinds of weird stuff.

New requirements labelled as bugs so they don't have to pay is scary and demoralizing.

This made me think about the xz dev. Hope he's doing alright.

I also like to have a revolving set of tasks to work on. The tasks can be related or not, but the important part is switching to a task that engages a different part of the brain - allowing the previously engaged part of the brain to rest.

One example is a physical task such as cleaning vs. a mental task such as studying. Or, taking notes (operational task) vs. organizing notes (management task).

"a golden rule is of course to never actually send off your reply or comment while feeling upset or angry. It is then better to wait, sleep on it and go back and edit it down to the bare minimum the day after"

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