Quotes of the week

[Posted October 5, 2016 by corbet]

I do find that as I get older, emphatically stating the obvious becomes an increasingly large fraction of my role.

Having someone say "lets get sorted after the merge window" is far better than having your patches ignored - it tells you someone wants your code and is actually planning to review it in the near term! Have patience. Keep the patches up to date, keep building what you need to build on top of them. Missing a merge window is not the end of the world.

— Dave Chinner

How about a bikeshed? It would convey how hardening is not "perfect security", and ack the irony of spending time on discussing a logo. I don't even have a preference as to which color the bikeshed should be.

— Solar Designer

Quotes of the week

Posted Oct 6, 2016 12:32 UTC (Thu) by k3ninho (subscriber, #50375) [Link]

>I do find that as I get older, emphatically stating the obvious becomes an increasingly large fraction of my role.

I'm in Dunning-Kruger mode at the moment. I just don't think it's helpful to use phrases like 'common sense' or to write off the value of things you deem 'obvious'. The 'common' aspect of common sense assumes a shared amount of domain knowledge, leading to the saying that 'common sense isn't all that common'. We write off the value of things we deem obvious because they're not expensive conclusions to arrive at. With time, the pool of things each of us has learned will grow and as a result more things will be 'state of the art' and obvious or common sense -- unless you're naive or unaware of the field. Paul has had a long, brilliant career that will include an increased amount of stating things obvious to him.

...this much seems obvious.

(Excuse me.)
K3n.

Quotes of the week

Posted Oct 6, 2016 19:53 UTC (Thu) by ssmith32 (subscriber, #72404) [Link] (2 responses)

>I do find that as I get older, emphatically stating the obvious becomes an increasingly large fraction of my role.

Which, in my (admittedly ad-hoc experience) may indicate some combination of:

a) you're really smart
b) bad at communicating
c) lack the empathy to understand something from someone else's point of view (which does correlate with (b))

C) is the one that seems to correlate the strongest with getting older.... admittedly, I should find some good references for that, but I'm getting older, and find less desire to avoid confirmation bias :P

Although sometimes repetition is just the best way to communicate. So in this case, maybe just (A), and improved communication skills as you get older. Depends on what connotations are implied by "emphatic".

Quotes of the week

Posted Oct 6, 2016 22:03 UTC (Thu) by hirnbrot (guest, #89469) [Link] (1 responses)

Not only smart, "experienced" will also suffice. Which would fit nicely with age.

Quotes of the week

Posted Oct 15, 2016 23:38 UTC (Sat) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link]

Yes. Youngsters think they know it all. They also have a tendency to go "ooh - shiny".

Cheers,
Wol