One day I would like to put all open-source operating systems developers in one room and put one single slide on the screen:
"There is only one Donald Knuth and you are not him.
And no, you are not even Brian Kerninghan or Dennis Ritchie¹.
Learn to manage your ego."
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¹ I have actually met dmr as an 8 yr old child and asked him to explain printf() varargs to me² which he did in the kindest, gentlest, non-condescending way.
² Yes, I was taught C & Lisp aged 6. Explains things, right?
Expanding on the previous toot: I met dmr when he visited Italy in the late 70s to talk about Unix at the University of Milan. He spent an hour on the talk and God knows how many hours answering questions. My memories as a child are of a burly man with an American accent talking like a "kind giant" about stuff I loved. Right at the end I built up the courage to go and ask him something which bugged me enormously at the time (remember, this is pre-ANSI C) which was how printf() managed to have…
multiple arguments. First of all he asked me if I knew C and then if I had learned about pointers. So I explained that they were taught to me using the example of a long road with many houses and that you could talk about a house using the house number or by placing an arrow outside it. The arrow was special because you could move it around as needed. I remember him smiling and then proceeding to explain printf() to me using this model.
This is who you should strive to be. Not Linus, not Theo.
@cynicalsecurity I think kindness is best, generally. I've seen Linus with young coders though, and he's very decent.
The ire seems to come out toward those that he deems should know better.
