5 ms·
Lacking in charisma hardly describes a person like Theo de Raadt. I've never met the man, but I doubt that someone who lacks charisma could have lead a dedicate
by alxlaz 7y ago
Lacking in charisma hardly describes a person like Theo de Raadt. I've never met the man, but I doubt that someone who lacks charisma could have lead a dedicated, opinionated team through more than 40 releases (counting OpenBSD releases alone!), over a period of almost 25 years now, a team which not only developed a sturdy (if equally opinionated) operating system but also a bunch of highly successful projects like, I dunno, Open-bloody-SSH.
I mean, maybe it's not too much charisma but I'd be glad if I had only like 10% of that...
- riffraff 7y agothe same applies to Stallman, if you consider that the FSF has been running for 34 years. But I believe grandparent didn't mean they lack charisma, but that they didn't have enough to swerve the general public.
- cat199 7y agoI would posit that: impact = charisma * funding so .1 charisma score of some faceless tech exec * 1B in VC funding goes alot more than 2.0 charisma score * 50k of grasroots funding..
- ixtli 7y agoI wish i could favorite a comment.
- WatchDog 7y agoBut funding is also a function of charisma, among other variables.
- cat199 7y agoI would posit that: funding = charisma * suitability for capitalism so .1 charisma score of some faceless tech exec * 1B in VC funding goes alot more than 2.0 charisma score * 50k of socially oriented funding..
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- toyg 7y agoWith charisma, it’s not just quantity but quality. What appeals to some will repel others. De Raadt has qualities that entice him strongly to some, but are irksome to many, many more. See for example the trollish attitude to Comic Sans.
- tyri_kai_psomi 7y agoAnd Stallman is very off-putting to many with how unabashed and unashamed he is about some of his more extreme progressive views. Unfortunately for him, that excludes almost half of the potential support he would receive.
- pgcj_poster 7y agoI don't think Stallman's political views are that extreme when you consider that a lot of free software advocates are actual communists.
- lowtolerance 7y agoI’ll take a commie over a pedophile apologist any day.
- Koshkin 7y agoI think deep down all people are communists - they all like things for free.
- beatgammit 7y agoI disagree. Just because people like free stuff doesn't mean they want to force others (and themselves) to provide that free stuff. Some certainly do, but there are plenty who don't.
- Koshkin 7y agoBut people are "forced" to work anyway, free stuff or not.
- Florin_Andrei 7y agoIt simply means he can convince some people who are open to technical arguments and do not think too differently from him. And that's about it. Charisma means being able to persuade all kinds of individuals, regardless of their inclinations and initial positions.