I don't normally consider myself an angry person. I don't go around kicking puppies or punching holes in walls, but over the last day or so, I've been considering whether or not I default to anger
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Your work is very appreciated hereext_240294July 27 2010, 10:59:27 UTC
Tom, I really appreciate your work in Fedora (not only with Chromium).
I don't know you personally, but from alchemist's previous comment, I guess passion can be misinterpret as anger especially if you have very clear ideas about very complex concepts. I think a more elaborated question would have had different results.
Don't take it personally, and don't let it affect you (I'm now, I'm being selfish now... because your cool work affects me directly).
Great post, but *please* change your main page for clarityext_240293July 27 2010, 11:57:04 UTC
I read your post with interest, I was actually pointed to it from the Fedora Ambassadors mailing list.
I wanted to see what other posts you had made at spot.livejournal.com but I am having a hard time differentiating the post title from the background images.
Nothing wrong with my eyesight or anything, it is just that dark text on a slightly darker background is hard for me to read.
In the meantime I will struggle on undaunted and see what other nuggets you have.
May I make a post about your post on my blog, citing you appropriately and linking back to you?
Don't beat yourself upjjpmcdJuly 27 2010, 14:40:39 UTC
Spot, that was a great post.
I think we don't really reflect publicly enough on how useless anger is in pretty much any context, but especially in FOSS, and perhaps even more especially within the Fedora environment. Fedora's "minimal governance" model only works because we "be excellent to each other". It is hard when things don't go well to not get angry, but I can't think of many contexts where anger is useful.
I don't know DiBona's background, but certainly the huge corporate culture within Google has to be dramatically different than Fedora (and as best I can tell, Red Hat). Perhaps he had a history that caused him to interpret your question far differently than you intended. But in any case, is there any reason to take his reaction personally? Can it be at all useful?
Jimmy Hoffa famously had a sign on his desk that read "Illegitimi non carborundum". Sound advice ...
I was there...donaldsmithJuly 27 2010, 15:33:49 UTC
Tom, I don't know if you recall me being there, but I was sitting at the end of the same row as you, I'm hard to miss as I'm a large man.
With all due respect, you did appear very agitated. In fact your whole body was shaking. IMO, you were definitely using words and tone that I considered as being unhelpful to getting a good response.
The reason I remember this so well is that I commented later to some of my peers how Chris managed to deflate the situation so well by not beating around the bush -- stating directly that you were exhibiting this behavior and that it was difficult to give a clear response.
I personally don't do well with agitated people (my instinct is to flee), and thought Chris did an amazing job bringing the conversation back to a workable point from what was looking like something untenable.
Re: I wasn't there, but Chris' response is tellingdonaldsmithJuly 27 2010, 22:20:08 UTC
It was 'amazing' because I bet most people would have just told Tom to piss off, or leave the room without acknowledging the issue. Instead, Chris surprised me by putting Tom to task and asking if he actually recognized his degree of agitation - then quickly turned the situation back to the issue.
It's disappointing that rather than debate the core technical and business issues, Tom decided to write 'this'.
Re: I wasn't there, but Chris' response is tellingmihmoJuly 27 2010, 22:51:44 UTC
"I bet most people would have just told Tom to piss off, or leave the room without acknowledging the issue"
Wow, you think most professional speakers representing a Fortune 500 company at a public event would tell someone asking them a question they didn't like to "piss off" or leave the room?
The lowness of your expectations surprises and disappoints me.
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I don't know you personally, but from alchemist's previous comment, I guess passion can be misinterpret as anger especially if you have very clear ideas about very complex concepts. I think a more elaborated question would have had different results.
Don't take it personally, and don't let it affect you (I'm now, I'm being selfish now... because your cool work affects me directly).
Reply
Sorry for the typo.
Reply
I wanted to see what other posts you had made at spot.livejournal.com but I am having a hard time differentiating the post title from the background images.
Nothing wrong with my eyesight or anything, it is just that dark text on a slightly darker background is hard for me to read.
In the meantime I will struggle on undaunted and see what other nuggets you have.
May I make a post about your post on my blog, citing you appropriately and linking back to you?
Reply
I think we don't really reflect publicly enough on how useless anger is in pretty much any context, but especially in FOSS, and perhaps even more especially within the Fedora environment. Fedora's "minimal governance" model only works because we "be excellent to each other". It is hard when things don't go well to not get angry, but I can't think of many contexts where anger is useful.
I don't know DiBona's background, but certainly the huge corporate culture within Google has to be dramatically different than Fedora (and as best I can tell, Red Hat). Perhaps he had a history that caused him to interpret your question far differently than you intended. But in any case, is there any reason to take his reaction personally? Can it be at all useful?
Jimmy Hoffa famously had a sign on his desk that read "Illegitimi non carborundum". Sound advice ...
Reply
Reply
With all due respect, you did appear very agitated. In fact your whole body was shaking. IMO, you were definitely using words and tone that I considered as being unhelpful to getting a good response.
The reason I remember this so well is that I commented later to some of my peers how Chris managed to deflate the situation so well by not beating around the bush -- stating directly that you were exhibiting this behavior and that it was difficult to give a clear response.
I personally don't do well with agitated people (my instinct is to flee), and thought Chris did an amazing job bringing the conversation back to a workable point from what was looking like something untenable.
- Don
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It's disappointing that rather than debate the core technical and business issues, Tom decided to write 'this'.
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Wow, you think most professional speakers representing a Fortune 500 company at a public event would tell someone asking them a question they didn't like to "piss off" or leave the room?
The lowness of your expectations surprises and disappoints me.
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