Linus making statements for effect [LWN.net]

Linus making statements for effect

Posted Jul 18, 2008 11:30 UTC (Fri) by nix (subscriber, #2304)
In reply to: Linus flamebait by epa
Parent article: Linus's mid-merge-window reflections

This is not a change. He was like this on Usenet in 1993... besides, you 
*know* that the right way to find the answer to something on the net isn't 
to simply ask (nobody will answer), but to confidently state something 
slightly wrong, whereupon heaps of people will pop up to correct you and 
prove themselves right.

(It makes other people feel better *and* you learn what you wanted to 
learn. You just have to be willing to look like a fool in front of 
thousands of people.)

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Linus making statements for effect

Posted Jul 25, 2008 16:33 UTC (Fri) by giraffedata (subscriber, #1954) [Link]

you *know* that the right way to find the answer to something on the net isn't to simply ask (nobody will answer), but to confidently state something slightly wrong, whereupon heaps of people will pop up to correct you and prove themselves right.

That's a great observation, and it reminds me of another public discussion technique, pushing rather than pulling information:

Years ago, I participated in a mailing list where I knew the topic pretty well, but with significant holes. If I wasn't confident in an answer to a question, I hung back a few days to see if a real expert would step forward, but it never happened. Instead, I discovered quickly that when I finally gave my half-baked answer, a particular person - Ted - would immediately post with the correct answer. Well, I didn't get embarassed and stop answering questions; I started answering them all immediately, even irresponsibly. Where I was wrong, Ted would immediately post the correction and the questioner got good information quickly.

Incidentally, it was never my impression that Ted was trying to slap down people showing their stupidity. I believed that he was just letting others share some of the burden and glory of answering questions. After all, I wasn't always wrong.