[OT] Re: [gentoo-dev] RFC: news item for upower

[Tom Wijsman]

On Wed, 04 Jun 2014 00:49:48 +0200
Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@×××××.com> wrote:

> Indeed. It really comes down to a judgement call whether to compose a
> news item or not.

True, it is not always easy; although some of us want or try to figure
this out in advance, even predictions won't help to determine how well
the users will experience these kind of effects. The more these events
happen, the more I think they're aftermath is inevitable, the more it
would be nice to redesign to prevent the events from happening.

Especially when you get to know the Portage output better, it is hard to
judge how well the Portage output still is for existing users; I have
no motivation to improve the Portage output for myself, given I can
find my way in it in a reasonable amount of time (given the parameters
--tree and --unordered-display which are not default).

But that's where it stops; though I recognize that it is not as helpful
for new users, as well as want to improve it for them, it is hard to
know where to start and what kind of output to go for. We're locked
down to a particular view; thinking of other views, it'll be hard to see
one where there is a benefit that outweighs the costs implementing it.

So, then you can come to the conclusion that we have good enough output
considering the conditions in which the output can be changed; and as a
result of it not changing, we rely more and more on its knowledge.

> I myself in my sysadmin day job get this right about 50% of the time
> if I'm lucky. I've learned (via hard knocks) that if a number of
> people raise concerns, then it very well might not be bikeshedding,
> it might be valid.

What I'm trying to say was that it is still in some way valid when you
bike shed; it isn't so much anymore about the central point being
discussed about being valid, but the idea behind why you're discussing
that central point.

Among other things, this highlights things in the organization and/or
respect of the matter at hand; it won't result a change wrt to the
central point, but it'll result in a change of organization and/or
respect.

Just because you can't quickly find out a date to go out with someone
doesn't mean you can't do it more organized and respectful next time.

> Often as the BOFH I'm too close to the technical problem to notice
> the human elements - that needs a view from 10 feet back.

When faced with a technical problem; there are 3 or more ways to take a
stance, some of which conflicting stances make the human part matter:

 1. Aggressive: You want your work to happen and lead to results.

 2. Defensive: You want to prevent your work from changing, you want to
 prevent the results of your work from changing.

 3. Neutral: You don't know much about the work, it's not clear what
 you want; given that, you'll play devil's advocate to learn more of it.

Now, with any of these; it is easy to get into the human elements,
which have to do with a problem in the organization (expectations,
planning, reports, ...) or respect (finding out what works for both).

Sometimes the view is too far back, because you're as explained above
grown used to the situation; when that happens, you get stuck and
either need to make a comprise not in your favor or need to move on.

A lot of compromises, some recently, get made; which I'm happy about.

A lot of us are here for improving Gentoo, we can't just always
agree on the particular way in which to do that; but it'll be the net
result of all those (dis)agreements, compromises and walks that count.

> News items are probably one of Gentoo's best ideas ever.

True that.

-- 
With kind regards,

Tom Wijsman (TomWij)
Gentoo Developer

E-mail address  : TomWij@g.o
GPG Public Key  : 6D34E57D
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