Messages in this thread |  | | From | Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton <> | Date | Sat, 22 Sep 2018 08:46:14 +0100 | Subject | Re: Linux 4.19-rc4 released, an apology, and a maintainership note |
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linus, hi,
i haven't been able to get hold of a copy of "invisible dynamics" yet however my partner did track down a... "translation" of the six systemic laws from family to organisational principles (from where they were originally derived). the book puts the systemic laws in a clearer way and explains them very well, where i think the attached was an effort to show the origin.
i have witnessed many times where free softwre projects violate these systemic laws: those projects fail, pure and simple. sometimes that failure takes a while: they fail nonetheless.
one particularly interesting aspect of these systemic laws of organisations is: they really are laws. they're not "principles that are optional to uphold". i regularly encounter people who say "i don't believe in this rubbish you are spouting, it can't possibly be (a) true (b) apply to me" [thus ironically violating the aspect of "respecting contributors"] yet more than that they do not realise that these systemic laws take effect and apply *regardless of whether participants believe in them*.
i think, really, why i was so delighted and relieved at what you wrote was: you finally acknowledged a long-standing systematic violation of some of these laws, and promised to fix that. (a) treating people with dignity (b) treating people with respect: these are at least two that you recognised and promised to fix.
the new code of conduct (which... well... it's a good idea to read the top comments here [1] in particular the one "can't be examined in isolation") and also the original code of conflict, in both there are unfortunately things still missing that, if left out, will continue to cause problems.
one main insight that occurred to me over the past few days: the change from a code of conflict to a code of conduct, it wasn't so much the lack of wider consultation that bothered me as much as it has other people, nor the change to a "proscribed list of toxic (and ever incomplete) behaviours" [2], as i do not believe that that *actually* was the problem in the first place.
the problem i feel was that because you, as the longest-standing member and the member with the highest expertise, were not respecting the code, absolutely nobody else could possibly follow or enforce it, either. as in: how comfortable do you think the people tasked with enforcing the code would feel about raising an issue with you, when they received a complaint about your prior behaviour? and that's why it was so, so important that you acknowledged this, and invited people to give you feedback, and *promised to listen*.
the last major insight i wanted to give you is this: don't feel guilty, and for god's sake don't be tempted to abandon your responsibilities just because you're "reflecting"! you don't do software development on your own (because we know that more eyes fix bugs), and more to the point, if you go off and "fix" your behaviour (privately), um... how do we know that it's *actually* what's needed to be "fixed"?
so can i make a suggestion? treat "yourself" as "another bug-ridden free software project to be fixed"! create a mailing list, create a group, invite people to participate, with a pledge and a goal "Fix Our Behaviour And Learn To Be Better Software Libre Developers". it's not about *you*, Linus, it's about *people* and about *communication*, it always has been. ... so why are you going away to fix "you", when actually you need to learn *interaction* with others, and get rapid cyclic feedback on that, and the best way to do that is, i feel, treat it as another open project, complete with mailing list, roadmap and everything! :)
that way, you get some fantastic feedback, you get to learn *and then teach by example* how to turn the world's largest software project into a *really good* software project that shows people across the world how it really should be done.
lastly, if you (or anyone else) is wondering how i can have the... um... "gall" to make these suggestions, it's very simple: the linux kernel is installed on hundreds of millions of devices across the world. if there's a problem with how it's developed, that's *everyone's* problem, including mine. i take responsibility for standing up and saying "scuse me, this affects me if it's causing people pain", and so should you.
/respect, linus.
l.
[1] https://linux.slashdot.org/story/18/09/18/1441230/linux-community-to-adopt-new-code-of-conduct#comments [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9742223 - "if you have to actually spell out that they shouldn't be hateful, there's a bigger problem at stake" [unhandled content-type:image/png] |  |