>>>>> "AS" == Andrew Suffield <asuffield@debian.org> writes:
Me> Within our project, if you consider the most effective DDs*,
Me> you're going to also be thinking of the most reasonable,
Me> thoughtful, and friendly ones.
AS> No, I'd say that's entirely wrong.
I'd say that you're being intentionally obtuse in order to maintain
your indefensible position. But, y'know, argument retracted: you and I
have different lists of effective DDs.
AS> The rest of your mail was based on similarly dumb ideas.
Which ideas do I have that are so dumb? That you shouldn't be mean
when you don't have to? That when trying to solve problems with other
people you should address issues rather than personalities? What's so
dumb about that?
Me> Hey, sure. It's impossible not to offend anyone. But it's
Me> always possible to deal with people politely and
Me> respectfully. How they react is their own business.
AS> That attitude was the cause of the Earth-Minbari war.
The cause of the war wasn't the Minbari's open gun ports, but the
Prometheus' firing in response. And, you know, that reaction ended up
being quite a problem for humanity.
Developing an OS is different from meeting a flotilla of warships. I
know it doesn't seem that way sometimes, but it is.
AS> The rest of the world does not share your notions of "polite" and
AS> "respectful", for all values of "your". I find yours to be
AS> pretty much the opposite.
I haven't told you my notions of politeness and respect.
On my side, I find your point, that we should be forthright about
technical and organizational problems, entirely reasonable. I'd rebut
that we don't need to act like surly teens all the time in order to do
that.
~ESP
--
Evan Prodromou
evan@debian.org