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So I think this is the most cogent argument against RMS's leadership I've seen. It directly relates to his ability to practically lead an organization. Its to

So I think this is the most cogent argument against RMS's leadership I've seen. It directly relates to his ability to practically lead an organization. Its too bad that this argument has not been front and center instead of the politically charged but subjective comments by RMS. In short RMS is a bad boss that does not consider the needs of his employees according to the author.

agentdrtran 6y ago
RMS being repeatedly awful to women is just as important as this, and his other comments are "political" insomuch that arguing about the age of consent is political.
- belorn 6y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_consent#/media/File:Age_of_Consent_-_Global.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_consent#/media/File:Age... It seems like the age of consent is political, or the age would be identical everywhere. There is a bell curve for the start of human sexuality. Here in Sweden the age of 14 is the median for girls, 14.4 for boys, and the age of consent is set to 15. Does that mean 15 is a good age of consent? Should the age of consent be the median age, the 10% (12y), or the 80% (16y)? Personally I prefer the "half the person's age + 7" rule (for the partner's minimum age), but I don't know any country that has that as an age of consent.
  - Arainach 6y ago
    Consent has to do with mental maturity, not physical.
    - belorn 6y ago
      The mind finishes maturing at the age of 25. The medical evidence for that is pretty much established, and is why a lot of researchers want to (at minimum) abolish the death sentence for anyone younger. It is quite questionable if one should hold people responsible for behavior before their mind has finished developing. A similar argument could be made about driving. At the age of 16, the impulse control is severely underdeveloped, likely by evolutionary benefits. New experiences invoke a much stronger endocrine response than for fully matured individuals, and with faster depletion rate. A driving license should really be around age 20+ if one would follow mental maturity. Sweden have set it to 18. We have so many different age lines. Driving, drinking, military service, voting, consent, crime, legal responsibility. 25 would be a great line for it all based on medical data. In Sweden we expect young people to have the mind around 15 to start having sex with each other, but we don't trust that they have the mental capacity to drive before 18. Is the numbers that the US use better? Worse? Is the answer political? I would say yes.
  - gremlinsinc 6y ago
    How's the half the person's age+7 work?
    - AnimalMuppet 6y ago
      You take the older person's age, divide by 2, and add 7 years. A relationship with a person younger than that is "icky". By that rule (guideline), a 50-year-old should not be in a relationship with an 18-year-old, even if 18 is the age of consent.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
  - true_religion 6y ago
    By the half your age + 7 rule, Trump should have never been married. Now I don’t have an opinion on how great or terrible the guy is but if 50% of the country supports him, then that’s indicative that there isn’t really any consensus on age differences when dating. Personally I think there is no reason to look down on consensual relationships between two adults. Especially true if they are far beyond the age of consent.
ampdepolymerase 6y ago
Or maybe he should had restricted the foundation's mission scope to solely open source software and not tie everything into a progressive endeavor. Your culture determines everything. Collective action and employee protests at Google is very different than at Amazon/Microsoft. If RMS had tied his personal brand to FSF's success, then he would have easily weathered the coup attempts. This is basic executive power MBA 101. During the massive corporate adoption of open source post-2010 he could have restructured the foundation to make it more scalable like the Linux Foundation or Wikimedia, a force unto itself with cash reserves and endowments. But he didn't, I think he has learnt an important lesson this time. The FSF is a startup that never grew beyond the "scrappy entrepreneur in garage" phase. Starbucks has a much better chance of surviving collective action than your average neighborhood kombucha café place.
belorn 6y ago
It is something to look at in term of leadership, but I am missing a key detail. What pay did RMS give to himself, what kind of raises, benefits, cost of living conditions, paid vacations, stock options, works hours? How much of it was communicated at the point of hire to the non-profit organization, and what were the expectations?
einpoklum 6y ago
Those are serious and cogent argument (although I don't like the "safe space" terminology). Having said that - the issue at hand right now is whether RMS should or should not be on the GCC steering committee, not managing the FSF. And "leadership" is an even more diffuse term. Also, one should bear in mind that Stallman has (AFAICT) Asperger's syndrome or High-Functioning Autism (a.k.a. neuro-diversity). That does not excuse much in itself - and in fact, is an argument against making him a powerful singular boss of people - but should be taken into consideration when you think about how this sort of situation develops.

agentdrtran 6y ago

RMS being repeatedly awful to women is just as important as this, and his other comments are "political" insomuch that arguing about the age of consent is political.

belorn 6y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_consent#/media/File:Age_of_Consent_-_Global.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_consent#/media/File:Age... It seems like the age of consent is political, or the age would be identical everywhere. There is a bell curve for the start of human sexuality. Here in Sweden the age of 14 is the median for girls, 14.4 for boys, and the age of consent is set to 15. Does that mean 15 is a good age of consent? Should the age of consent be the median age, the 10% (12y), or the 80% (16y)? Personally I prefer the "half the person's age + 7" rule (for the partner's minimum age), but I don't know any country that has that as an age of consent.
- Arainach 6y ago
  Consent has to do with mental maturity, not physical.
  - belorn 6y ago
    The mind finishes maturing at the age of 25. The medical evidence for that is pretty much established, and is why a lot of researchers want to (at minimum) abolish the death sentence for anyone younger. It is quite questionable if one should hold people responsible for behavior before their mind has finished developing. A similar argument could be made about driving. At the age of 16, the impulse control is severely underdeveloped, likely by evolutionary benefits. New experiences invoke a much stronger endocrine response than for fully matured individuals, and with faster depletion rate. A driving license should really be around age 20+ if one would follow mental maturity. Sweden have set it to 18. We have so many different age lines. Driving, drinking, military service, voting, consent, crime, legal responsibility. 25 would be a great line for it all based on medical data. In Sweden we expect young people to have the mind around 15 to start having sex with each other, but we don't trust that they have the mental capacity to drive before 18. Is the numbers that the US use better? Worse? Is the answer political? I would say yes.
- gremlinsinc 6y ago
  How's the half the person's age+7 work?
  - AnimalMuppet 6y ago
    You take the older person's age, divide by 2, and add 7 years. A relationship with a person younger than that is "icky". By that rule (guideline), a 50-year-old should not be in a relationship with an 18-year-old, even if 18 is the age of consent.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- true_religion 6y ago
  By the half your age + 7 rule, Trump should have never been married. Now I don’t have an opinion on how great or terrible the guy is but if 50% of the country supports him, then that’s indicative that there isn’t really any consensus on age differences when dating. Personally I think there is no reason to look down on consensual relationships between two adults. Especially true if they are far beyond the age of consent.

ampdepolymerase 6y ago

Or maybe he should had restricted the foundation's mission scope to solely open source software and not tie everything into a progressive endeavor. Your culture determines everything. Collective action and employee protests at Google is very different than at Amazon/Microsoft. If RMS had tied his personal brand to FSF's success, then he would have easily weathered the coup attempts. This is basic executive power MBA 101. During the massive corporate adoption of open source post-2010 he could have restructured the foundation to make it more scalable like the Linux Foundation or Wikimedia, a force unto itself with cash reserves and endowments. But he didn't, I think he has learnt an important lesson this time. The FSF is a startup that never grew beyond the "scrappy entrepreneur in garage" phase. Starbucks has a much better chance of surviving collective action than your average neighborhood kombucha café place.

belorn 6y ago

It is something to look at in term of leadership, but I am missing a key detail. What pay did RMS give to himself, what kind of raises, benefits, cost of living conditions, paid vacations, stock options, works hours? How much of it was communicated at the point of hire to the non-profit organization, and what were the expectations?

einpoklum 6y ago

Those are serious and cogent argument (although I don't like the "safe space" terminology). Having said that - the issue at hand right now is whether RMS should or should not be on the GCC steering committee, not managing the FSF. And "leadership" is an even more diffuse term. Also, one should bear in mind that Stallman has (AFAICT) Asperger's syndrome or High-Functioning Autism (a.k.a. neuro-diversity). That does not excuse much in itself - and in fact, is an argument against making him a powerful singular boss of people - but should be taken into consideration when you think about how this sort of situation develops.