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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