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When I was doing my civil service (19), I was not very good at it. One day, one of the people at my workplace went off on me for something like ten minutes. I s

When I was doing my civil service (19), I was not very good at it. One day, one of the people at my workplace went off on me for something like ten minutes. I started crying. Then I apologized for crying, because I had no control over it. I didn't want them to think I was trying to manipulate them or anything; it was just something that my body decided to do without my input. "You have larger issues" is not an actionable strategy. By all means, if you can tell me how to not break down at intense personal criticism, I will gladly stop doing so. ("Can you just not?" No, I can't. I literally don't have the capability.) (Well, that was then. I've gotten a lot more confident since.)

moonchrome 4y ago
Well you sort of answered it - I don't have a problem with people crying in a stressful situation - just don't like the idea that we should coddle insecure people because they have confidence issues. Also 19 is a teenager - I prefaced my comment with it being understandable for younger people building their self image/novices. Snarky comments forget that there are people behind those projects - but there's this implicit assumption that any contribution is a good thing and it should be encouraged. Poor contributions that are not called out just are traps and time wasters for other people - as someone who had to dumpster dive on NPM in the past - no contribution is better than a poor one because poor ones waste time and create noise. It might make the author feel bad but it's better for the community.