[krmboya]

> pithy approach to interpersonal relationships

These things are highly contextual and highly subjective. Culture is very different around the world.

There are highly manipulative and malevolent individuals who know how to behave the right way when it comes to political correctness but lack objective directness that actually improves the situation long term

[darby_nine]

This is absolutely true. It's also difficult to judge how much otherwise obnoxious developers take advantage of "niceness" from outside the zoo looking in. These situations were almost necessarily interpreted out of context without catching up on years of mailing list culture.

[ChrisMarshallNY]

I worked for a Japanese company that employed some of the top engineers and scientists in the world.

The Japanese don't really like yelling and screaming, but I have watched managers reduce subordinates to tears, with a few firm words (literally).

Also, some of these top-shelf engineers could be "pithy." They didn't suffer fools, and had the attitude that if you were working directly with them, it was assumed that you were at a level that would not interfere with their work (like having to constantly stop and explain stuff).

Their end-product was really good, but it took a very strident culture to get there.

I assume that the Linux Kernel is just such a product. I can certainly understand the stress on making sure that anything that goes in there, needs to be absolutely top-notch. Not just in code Quality, but also in the mindset of the people submitting it.

I will also say that, if we want top be top performers, ourselves, we need to be willing to be in situations, where we could be yelled at, told our work is shite, etc.

It would be nice, if we were gentler than those than go before us, but this type of thing tends to self-regulate. If a top performer is so toxic that no one can work with them, they can get shown the door. That was not always the case, but I think it is increasingly so, these days.

But that doesn't mean that top performers are required to coddle; maybe just not outright abuse.

On a somewhat related note, I've been enjoying watching Slow Horses, and the Jackson Lamb character brings back memories.