Linus Tech Tips issues response to Madison's accusations

Briongloid@aussie.zone to Technology@beehaw.org – 397 points –
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I honestly believe that Linus is a well intentioned dumbass. He likes his people and believes that everyone can just get along and that nobody would harass another employee seriously. He knows that the mistakes are just honest mistakes which is why he gets so defensive, take the whole "trust me bro" thing... I think it never occurred to him to fuck his customers over which is why he didnt handle it well.

He doesnt believe his employees need a union because I dont know about you but if I owned a company Id hope that my people felt looked after well enough that they didnt feel like they needed one either.

But that kind of attitude just doesnt work with so damn many people, he should have hired a full time HR manager YEARS ago, as well as the company lawyer on staff. He SHOULD NOT be doing the WAN show, or if he does it should be on a 5 minute tape delay with someone from legal and hr present.

The reason why so much bullshit corporate structure exists is to largely protect the company from itself.

You only have to watch him interacting with his staff in a few videos and you can see that the bullying comes right from the top. That's not something that's going to change easily.

A couple people have said this now, but can you link some examples? I've been watching the channel for a while and don't recall things like that, but it could just be that I was watching with rose colored glasses.

From what I've seen his staff also "bully" him as well, to me it looks like casual ribbing each other that friends do, I could be wrong

Source: trust me bro?

The whole "Trust me bro" thing comes from when they released their backpacks. They had issues with some of the zippers and people wanted to know what the warranty was. Linus said they didnt explicitly have one but that he would look after anyone with issues. When people got a bit rightly pissed about this, he got a bit defensive. "Trust me bro" sprung up as a meme out of that whole saga.

So... No source then? You just kinda think Linus is nice from watching videos?

What source are you looking for, exactly? You asked about a specific incident and got a fine summary. If you want more context, it's very easy to find.

If you are looking for a "source" for a subjective opinion of someone's personality... I don't even know what that would accomplish or what form you think that would take.

I don't even know what that would accomplish or what form you think that would take.

Exactly, which is why I think it's weird to act like you know a stranger is a good person without much to go on.

If you've seen enough wan show you can get a pretty good idea of his personality. He spouts so many controversial takes without thinking through the consequences, so he's doing a terrible job if he's actually an evil mastermind. Most people are well intentioned and Linus is no different.

He's also naïve, arrogant, and defensive, as we've seen lately.

Also I've seen his ba faith take on Linux and so I'm not convinced being honest is a huge priority for him

There's a huuuuge margin between 'evil mastermind' and 'well intentioned', containing 'selfish misogynistic jackass', 'careless greedy capitalist', 'self-important egotistical manchild', and many other aphorisms that we could ascribe to this tear-stained apologetic corporate head that would be far more accurate.

In other words, just because he's not the smartest or most sinister bad actor doesn't mean we should trust him or give him our money or time.

But any of those can also include well intentioned. Well intentioned, negligent, naïve, egotistical, arrogant, focused too much on business. All are fair adjectives.

Even huge assholes are usually well intentioned (Elon Musk springs to mind), but they have a warped view of the world and get distracted by other things, and without realizing it end up doing more harm than good.

I think you're stretching things a bit if you're seeing Elon Musk as well-intentioned.

He doesnt believe his employees need a union because I dont know about you but if I owned a company Id hope that my people felt looked after well enough that they didnt feel like they needed one either.

If I owned my own company I would DEMAND my employees unionize. You can never trust your boss to have your back. Especially when your boss is me. Because I know me, and I suck.

Yeah, I'm just smaht enough to know I'm too dumb for that much responsibility.

Also, having a union makes contract negotiations simple, because the contract has already been negotiated with the union.

But here's the thing: the union ensures the contract is fair, and a lot of businesses don't like dealing fairly with their employees.

There's always ring 0, the initial crew who set the tone and culture of the company.

He doesnt believe his employees need a union because I dont know about you but if I owned a company Id hope that my people felt looked after well enough that they didnt feel like they needed one either.

I'm not gonna blame them for wanting to be protected. Even if I treat my hypothetical employees right, what happens when I'm gone? Will my successor treat them right? History says no. With a union, I can rest easy knowing that, come what may, my people will be taken care of.