I'm okay with personal attacks because my first instinct is to presume that the people writing them are not really upset at me personally, just with the work. T

I'm okay with personal attacks because my first instinct is to presume that the people writing them are not really upset at me personally, just with the work. They may choose to call me stupid, mentally challenged, wish I were retroactively aborted, etc. but they don't even know me so I genuinely can't reconcile why I would assume that intelligent people are being serious about that. If that's true, then there are three cases with regard to my code patch/submission: a) I am wrong and they are right, I've learned something and correct my code. b) I am right and they are wrong, I type up a reply and start an academic discussion on the issue itself. This is a good thing too. c) It's opinionated, in which case I defer to the people who are more invested in the kernel and correct my code, since it's better that things stay consistent with their opinions. In all three cases, after I'm done I go do something fun. Taking things personally would be a really sub-optimal use of my mortality. If I were interested in becoming friends with Linus and gang, I could see why this is a problem.