Re: [ 00/19] 3.10.1-stable review

Rusty Russell
2013-07-16T04:52:14Z

Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> writes:
> On Mon, Jul 15, 2013 at 12:17 PM, Willy Tarreau <w@1wt.eu> wrote:
>>
>> BTW, I was amazed that you managed to get him have a much softer tone inr
>> his last e-mail, you probably found a weakness here in his management
>> process :-)
>
> Hey, I _like_ arguing, and "cursing" and "arguing" are actually not at
> all the same thing.
>
> And I really don't tend to curse unless people are doing something
> stupid and annoying. If people have concerns and questions that I feel
> are valid, I'm more than happy to talk about it.
>
> I curse when there isn't any argument. The cursing happens for the
> "you're so f*cking wrong that it's not even worth trying to make
> logical arguments about it, because you have no possible excuse" case.
>
> .. and sometimes people surprise me and come back with a valid excuse
> after all. "My whole family died in a tragic freak accident and my
> pony got cancer, and I was distracted".
>
> And then I might even tell them I'm sorry.
>
> No. Not really.

You have to be harsh with code: People mistake politeness for
uncertainty. Whenever I said 'I prefer if you XYZ' some proportion
didn't realize I meant 'Don't argue unless you have new facts: do XYZ or
go away.' This wastes my time, so I started being explicit.

But be gentle with people. You've already called their baby ugly.

Cheers,
Rusty.