"When dealing with RMS, keep the following things in mind"

http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/RichardStallman

by fogus • 16 years ago

71 52 16 years ago

emacswiki.org

mhd3• 16 years ago

Reminded me of this old Jamie Zawinski joke: http://www.jwz.org/hacks/why-cooperation-with-rms-is-impossi...

(ObOld: I remember the time when it was why-cooperation-with-rms-is-impossible.au, not .mp3)

luigi• 16 years ago

The applause he gets at the end of that "song" makes listening to the whole thing worth it.

gaius3• 16 years ago

They forgot "his ideas about software economics only make sense if you have a $1M grant from the MacArthur foundation and tenure at MIT".

m0th87• 16 years ago

His ideas seem to be scaling pretty well. The GNU ecosystem is as big as ever.

gaius3• 16 years ago

... Thanks to IBM.

tjr2• 16 years ago

His MIT position is unpaid (and I'm unclear on what exactly he does for MIT anyway), and prior to winning things like the MacArthur grant he supported himself as an independent software consultant, working on and training people to use free software.

bitwize• 16 years ago

The sign on his door at MIT says he's a "Knight of Justice (and hot ladies)."

eru2• 16 years ago

RMS is a bunny ears laywer (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BunnyEarsLawyer).

8ren• 16 years ago

tvtropes is NSFWorking. Tangent: I disagree with Jack Sparrow being Crazy Awesome. He succeeds by the Rule of Cool, but I can't think of an instance where his craziness made him succeed (though that may be just because I'm very tired right now.) eg. at the start of PotC, he looks completely freaked as he flies up to escape from the pier. Or is the fact that he even tried it Crazy Awesome? Great movie, anyway.

eru2• 16 years ago

I guess it's the new rickrolling.

kleiba• 16 years ago

I don't know how many of you guys have ever actually contacted RMS, but whenever I did, his answers were quick, polite and to the point. Anecdotal, I know...

pavel_lishin• 16 years ago

I'm sure it depends on the topic of conversation, your stance on said topic, etc., etc., too.

jerf• 16 years ago

This is somehow different than other people?

abrahamsen• 16 years ago

That is my experience as well, but the "to the point" part took a bit getting used to.

tjr2• 16 years ago

In 1998 I wrote some documentation and offered it to the GNU Project. To my surprise, I got a reply back from Richard directly. He was very pleased that someone had written such documentation and offered it to them. (I remember him using the word "Hooray!")

However, in retrospect, what I wrote was pretty poorly written. It was my first major attempt at documentation, and Richard critiqued it heavily. I felt very hurt, but he was probably kinder than he needed to be given the low quality of my work, and, more importantly, he was correct. Once I got past feeling hurt, I learned a lot from his critiques. I essentially got free training in technical writing from Richard, and I look back on that as one of the more awesome moments in my life in software.

krelian• 16 years ago

He has very very little time, so his answers may seem impolite at times.

I always hear this but what is it exactly that he is doing that keeps him so busy?

omouse• 16 years ago

Living and enjoying life?

Marwy• 16 years ago

I guess he travels a lot (conferences etc.). Of course one could respond to emails while flying a plane, but, you know, it's rms.

hugh3• 16 years ago

Answering all these emails, apparently.

jessriedel3• 16 years ago

This is such a bad excuse. Being polite requires extremely little time, and it's a requirement for interacting with humans.

In my experience, autistic-ish people (often geeks or nerds) sometimes confuse being polite with being social, which does take time. They then seem to think that if they don't have time (or really, the skill and desire) to be social, then they don't have to be polite.

This is a minority of geeks and nerds, of course.

sprout2• 16 years ago

Being polite takes very little time. Knowing what constitutes politeness takes a lifetime of study for some people, and when you travel as much as RMS does, that's a lifetime of study for anyone, autistic or no. Can you navigate social norms in every country he's been to (and worked in?) You're really oversimplifying.

jemfinch• 16 years ago

I think the statement that his answers may seem impolite is more a commentary on many people's inability to distinguish terseness from impoliteness. It's not saying that he's rude.

lsc• 16 years ago

really? if someone sends me a long message and I respond with a few lines, it's quite difficult to not come across as rude. If you have a four page essay, if I am to reject or accept it in a few lines, I'm only addressing a few of your points.

How do I respond politely to a four page essay without spending a significant amount of time on it?

jpablo2• 16 years ago

Mostly replying to mail. You have to see him doing it as a full time job (and still falling behind) to understand why he tries to optimize it so much.

runjake• 16 years ago

Probably speaking, coding, presenting, traveling, and replying to the massive amounts of email I presume he gets as leader of the Free Software movement.

He must get insane amounts of noise vs. signal in his email.

saratogacx• 16 years ago

He actually doesn't do much coding anymore. Due to his schedule he doesn't have time.

http://blog.reddit.com/2010/07/rms-ama.html (Question 10).

sriramk• 16 years ago

I know RMS is a special case but it annoys me when people say/act as if they're too busy to properly respond.

One of my favorite people in Microsoft is Ray Ozzie. Every single time I've mailed him, I've gotten a long, thoughtful reply. He is probably the best email handler I've seen.

BillG is pretty good at email and sending you prompt replies.

jpablo2• 16 years ago

I'll say giving a thoughtful reply to every random person that emails you is not really the best use of time.

Sure, it's great for you to get an answer and kudoz for the people who really have the time to do that.

xenophanes• 16 years ago

It depends on the type of email. In general, when I give people thoughtful replies I learn something. But I can see this wouldn't be true for some categories of email.

masklinn2• 16 years ago

> I know RMS is a special case but it annoys me when people say/act as if they're too busy to properly respond.

As far as I know, RMS does properly respond. He simply tends to be as terse as possible. Some people mistake it for rudeness.

djacobs3• 16 years ago

He doesn't have web access? Really? I don't think I understand.

mhd3• 16 years ago

From a post from 2007[1]:

    For personal reasons, I do not browse the web from my computer.
    (I also have not net connection much of the time.)  To look at
    page I send mail to a demon which runs wget and mails the page
    back to me.
    It is very efficient use of my time, but it is slow in real time.

[1]: http://article.gmane.org/gmane.os.openbsd.misc/134979

JeremyStein• 16 years ago

This is often quoted, but I suspect it's no longer true. When I referred him to an online article last year, he immediately replied about it. I bet he has access to a web browser when needed.

djacobs3• 16 years ago

Interesting, I'd never come across that quote before today. Anyone have any idea why he doesn't like the WWW? Is he still on Gopher?

masklinn2• 16 years ago

To complete mhd's comment, at the same time (don't know if it is still how he works) he would only connect to the web once every 24h, batch fetching and sending mail (including the pages fetched by his daemon).

This meant a ~36h turnaround for his responses (average): he'd get your mail ~12h (average) after you sent it and would only (be able to) send the reply 24h after that.

cromulent• 16 years ago

He is a fascinating creature. Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like to be alive at the same time as various historical characters. With him, I think I am. I believe history will treat him kindly, regardless of his idiosyncrasies.

brendoncrawford• 16 years ago

Keep in mind that RMS' email policy should not be confused with his face-to-face conversational style.

I ran into him at a train station in Milan, and completely commandeered his time and attention for a good 30 minutes, despite the fact that he had a train to catch. He politely answered all of my questions, and he even responded to my criticisms with civility and respect.

If you ever get him in a casual, face-to-face conversation, you will find that he actually comes across as quite meek and restrained, rather than the arrogant blow-hard that he is generally portrayed to be.

jff• 16 years ago

It may also be that face-to-face, he realizes it's a lot easier for someone to haul off and smack a hippie than it is via the Internet.

On the other hand, I think just about everyone comes across a lot friendlier in person, merely because it's easier to portray interest and friendliness than over email.

atari• 16 years ago

Has anyone else gotten unsolicited emails from RMS when you inadvertently use one of his "words to avoid" on a mailing list or the like? http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html

It's kinda fun.

bluesnowmonkey• 16 years ago

Lots of famous and busy people manage to be approachable without needing you to read a wiki page first. In fact it's really pompous to tell others they need to follow special guidelines because you're so busy, as if the rest of us sit around all day.

"When dealing with RMS, keep the following things in mind"

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