On Fri, Jul 16, 2004 at 10:46:10PM +1000, Matthew Palmer wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 16, 2004 at 02:27:38PM +0200, Ingo Juergensmann wrote:
> > People are mostly more interested in contributing and learning if you
> > guide them during real work. Sure, they must show some serious interest in
> > that task. A simple "here i am, what can i do?" is not enough.
> > But with regards to your bicycle example: a child will not learn riding
> > bike, when you just tell it: "look, there's a bike, there's a somewhere
> > some howtos.. .have fun!" Instead you'll need to guide it while it sits on
> > the bike, you'll need to catch it, if it might fall, etc.
>
> What a perfect analogy.
>
> It takes time to teach someone how to ride a bike. If it's your own child,
> you'll probably want to spend time doing it. How many random strangers have
> you taught to ride a bike?
>
> Furthermore, note how incredibly difficult it is to teach someone how to
> ride a bike whilst simultaneously riding yourself. You have to stop riding,
> hop off, and go help the other person.
>
> Now, ask yourself this -- would you rather have ftp-masters, listmasters,
> project secretary, and a million other things in Debian riding their bikes
> to the benefit of the project, or spending all their time herding newbies
> who are just as likely to decide it's not their cup of tea after all and
> wander off and do something else as stay and help?
>
> Your call.
You'll need a bikeshed. I'll paint it blue.
(with thanks to the FreeBSD developers)
--
EARTH
smog | bricks
AIR -- mud -- FIRE
soda water | tequila
WATER
-- with thanks to fortune
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