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Engineers too are human. They have egos and beliefs and care more about the things they build than they should. Their feelings get hurt when people are rude, sh
by falcolas 4y ago
Engineers too are human. They have egos and beliefs and care more about the things they build than they should. Their feelings get hurt when people are rude, short, or belittling - or when they perceive that someone's being rude, short, or belittling.
The perfectly rational engineer (read: human being) doesn't exist outside of a select few neurodivergant folks. Acting as if every engineer is perfectly rational is now, and always has been, a mistake.
Just ask Linus' more verbose colleagues; have a look at how he has changed over the many years he's lead the kernel development.
- lazide 4y agoIt is entirely possible to be direct without being an asshole. Being indirect, Socratic questioning, etc. has its place too. But it can easily just result in someone being a passive aggressive asshole instead of a direct one, or, as others noted in the thread, being confusing and a drag on everyone because they won’t actually say what they think.
- tomnipotent 4y ago> to be direct without being an asshole You don't have any control over how people perceive things, which is the point. Everyone is an asshole to someone.
- lazide 4y agoThat’s the ‘no one is an asshole, everyone is an asshole’ type of BS that muddies the waters. Linus has been an asshole, he didn’t have to be, and everyone agreed on that, including him. He’s getting better at being less of an asshole. That is what I’m referring to. It isn’t ambiguous. It isn’t ‘a bad day’. It isn’t one person getting offended about something that no one else saw. Pretending it is does no one any favors.
- eyelidlessness 4y ago[flagged]
- falcolas 4y agoSaying that someone is perfectly rational is not saying they have no emotions. Nor is it an insinuation that someone is somehow less human for prioritizing rationality in decision making. And I say this as an outspoken neurodivergent myself.
- eyelidlessness 4y agoAnd neither is anyone who’s neurodivergent “perfectly rational”. That’s not a helpful stereotype, all on its own, without any characterization of our emotional capacity or supposed prioritization of whatever mode of thought.
- Brian_K_White 4y agoWhat they said was factual enough. What they did not say was anything more than that. They are not guilty of anyone else's (your) embellishments.
- eyelidlessness 4y agoWhat did I embellish?
- Brian_K_White 4y agoEvery part of your comment was an accusation based on your own embellishments. They are not guilty of claiming or even implying that all neurodivergent are purely rational. You produced that yourself, and said it's wrong. Well, true it is wrong, and they are not guilty of saying that. Your comment was in response to theirs and not in a vacuum, and so the most reasonable interpretation of your comment is as response to theirs.
- eyelidlessness 4y ago> accusation I specifically said I didn’t think it was intended. > They are not guilty of claiming or even implying that all neurodivergent are purely rational. That’s not what I thought they said either. They said that “perfectly rational engineer (read: human being) doesn't exist outside of a select few neurodivergant folks”. My objection is that no person is perfectly rational, neurodivergent or otherwise, and identifying even a select few as such might reinforce the stereotype even unintentionally.