4 ms·
This is spot-on: "Membership in an open source community is like membership in the community of science. There is a straightforward process for finding a true
by cs702 9y ago
This is spot-on:
"Membership in an open source community is like membership in the community of science. There is a straightforward process for finding a true answer to any question. People disagree in public conversations. They must explain clearly and listen to those who response with equal clarity. Members of the community pay more attention to those who have been right in the past, and to those who enhance their reputation for integrity by admitting in public when they are wrong. They shun those who mislead. There is no court of final appeal. The only recourse is to the facts.
It’s a messy process but it works, the only one in all of human history that ever has. No other has ever achieved consensus at scale without recourse to coercion.
In science, anyone can experiment. In open source, anyone can access the facts of the code. Linus Torvalds may supervise a hierarchy that decides what goes into the Linux kernel, but anyone can see what’s there. Because the communities of science and open source accept facts as the ultimate source of truth and use the same public system for resolving disagreements about the facts, they foster the same norms of trust grounded in individual integrity."
The entire blog post is worth a read.
- gaius 9y agoMembership in an open source community is like membership in the community of science. There is a straightforward process for finding a true answer to any question Oh please. Dare to ask what is the best of anything and prepare for an epic flame war.
- dEnigma 9y agoBecause "What is the best X" is a vague question and rarely has just one true answer.
- ChrisRackauckas 9y agoWell, I asked the author for the data that led him to believe that the Julia community is "monopolistic", and he got mad and blocked me instead of linking to anything... https://twitter.com/ChrisRackauckas/status/985529394704740358 https://twitter.com/ChrisRackauckas/status/98552939470474035... So your remark is pretty spot on.
- littlehood 9y agoYou asked for that block in the second question. You sound very entitled to answers.
- ChrisRackauckas 9y agoI am just curious what led him to his conclusions. He made a very nasty comment about a group of people and gives no justification for why. I cannot seem to find out why when Googling either. Is it not okay to ask someone how they came to their conclusions?
- littlehood 9y agoYou could've asked politely, but it looks you missed your chance.
- s3s1212312 9y agoThis is true for the working part of the open source community. It is not true for the promoters, profiteurs, conference whores, all of whom attach their own names to something they did not write. And the latter people are often best known.