"the right color of hair"

Posted Sep 26, 2024 10:31 UTC (Thu) by farnz (subscriber, #17727)
In reply to: "the right color of hair" by carlosrodfern
Parent article: Linus and Dirk on succession, Rust, and more

I think you're possibly missing the point, though. Having the 80/90 year olds around and helping is awesome - they've got a depth of experience; however, would you bet the survival of your company on the 80+ years old engineer being around for the next 10 years? 20 years? 50 years?

At some point, the older generation is going to become unavailable to work on things. If the plan for the future is "I'll never retire, I'll never die, I'll never suffer a nasty disease like dementia", your project has a problem. If the plan is "well, we've got 3 employees under 50 who between them could replace the 80+ employee if necessary", you've got a future.

"the right color of hair"

Posted Sep 26, 2024 15:13 UTC (Thu) by carlosrodfern (subscriber, #166486) [Link] (6 responses)

I did get the point from the beginning. Linus corrected him, and then he clarified his point. Nevertheless, he started with such a statement, which in general reflects the sentiment of many in this industry.

"the right color of hair"

Posted Sep 26, 2024 16:54 UTC (Thu) by jake (editor, #205) [Link] (3 responses)

> Nevertheless, he started with such a statement, which in general reflects the sentiment of many in this industry.

I personally think he was just commenting on the fact that the color of (and/or amount of) kernel maintainers' hair has changed over the years. I pretty strongly doubt he was making an ageist statement, anyway ...

jake

"the right color of hair"

Posted Sep 26, 2024 19:04 UTC (Thu) by carlosrodfern (subscriber, #166486) [Link] (2 responses)

It could also be just a sarcastic/humor statement to introduce the topic. Dirk Hohndel has lots of gray hair too :D.

"the right color of hair"

Posted Oct 3, 2024 19:08 UTC (Thu) by mikebenden (guest, #74702) [Link] (1 responses)

JFC, the fact that y'all felt obligated to go over this obviously self-deprecating joke with such a fine toothed comb, for a total of 6 back-and-forth comments (and counting), is just... sad... :(

"the right color of hair"

Posted Oct 4, 2024 9:54 UTC (Fri) by farnz (subscriber, #17727) [Link]

That's the trouble with older generations - they're such sensitive snowflakes :-)

More seriously, this is the trouble with humour - it doesn't always translate well across media or cultural boundaries.

"the right color of hair"

Posted Oct 3, 2024 18:05 UTC (Thu) by dirkhh (subscriber, #50216) [Link] (1 responses)

I believe it's pretty clear, if you watch the recording, that I was talking about the color of Linus' and especially my hair.
I used to be a red-haired. I am decidedly not any more. So mostly this was a tongue in cheek comment about myself and Linus.

"the right color of hair"

Posted Nov 9, 2024 5:08 UTC (Sat) by carlosrodfern (subscriber, #166486) [Link]

I didn't even know these comments were still going here. Sorry, that's right, I realized that later when I watched the video. I enjoyed watching your interviews, BTW.