There exists a tremendous danger of overcorrection here. Too much agreeableness is inimical to technical progress, which requires placing technical standards ov

There exists a tremendous danger of overcorrection here. Too much agreeableness is inimical to technical progress, which requires placing technical standards over egos. While it's counter-productive to provoke people unnecessarily, we can't allow someone's claim to have been emotionally hurt to automatically trump technical criticism. We should strive to be as kind as possible, but not to the point where we begin to sacrifice the truth. There are some people today who are so averse to negativity that merely saying "this code sucks" is enough to get the speaker called a "jerk". This level of sensitivity is not compatible with a pursuit of technical excellence. We have to be able to acknowledge that both bad and good code exist in order to make technical progress. I hope Linus doesn't end up being guided by the kind of people who go so far toward protecting people's emotions that they demand we accept technical mediocrity.