Re: [gentoo-project] Re: A plan for Gentoo

[Daniel Robbins]

Hi Andreas,

Yes, you bring up an old argument I had with ciaranm (who I am sure no one
has ever got in an argument with before, wink wink.)

Looking at my past, I think you may find it a familiar trajectory that
resonates with a lot of senior Gentoo contributors: unbridled youthful
enthusiasm, which then turns into incredible productivity and growth, then
additional burdens, responsibilities and demands, resulting in eventual
burn-out and cynicism. I was the first astronaut to be launched into orbit,
so to speak, so I got to experience this fantastic voyage first -- but I am
sure you know others who have followed in my foot-steps in this area. So I
think the point you raise is actually important, but it should not be
presented as a personal attack on me, but as a general weakness in Gentoo
related to mentorship, growth and direction for senior-level Gentoo
contributors and providing them with positive (good for the project, good
for them) outlets for their immense talent, while preventing their
incredible influence gained within the project from turning into a negative
and causing internal strife.

Everyone needs a path of growth, including our most senior people. I can
tell you from personal experience that dealing with this by having an
internal civil war is not good for the project or for those personally
involved. It can be extremely damaging. I feel like I have felt the pain of
walking this path and am motivated to prevent other senior Gentoo
developers from eventually becoming cynical and burnt out. I have talked to
a couple recently who are clearly experiencing this. I frankly think this
is very important to address for the health of the project. In particular,
we have recently lost vapier and I am concerned about a few others. I think
that the solution to this is to have a vision of forward evolution and
growth of the project -- we need new, bigger challenges and our most senior
people need to 'graduate' into playing a leading role in shaping the future
of technology. We all need to support one another instead of fighting
amongst each other.

The phrase of 'non-voting council member' is essentially meaningless -- I
ask that I would be included in council meetings and allowed to speak
during them. I think this is a reasonable request considering my
background. My intention is to contribute. If I were to simply be invited
to these meetings, and sincerely allowed to participate and not experience
any passive-aggressive behavior from council members who may prefer to not
have me there, I think this would be sufficient. If it seemed presumptuous
to propose a vote or a special role, I understand, apologize, and I assure
you that it is motivated by enthusiasm and not expectation of special
treatment.

FWIW, I have applied to be a non-committing Gentoo developer. Zac Medio is
my mentor, so I will be completing that process. I have interest in being
involved in the following roles:

1) Council. I would be happy to participate in council meetings. Just know
that if I were invited to participate, I would.

2) Trustees. I notice that we only have four trustees. I would be happy to
serve as the 'fifth Beatle' which would legally obligate me in my role as
trustee to represent the interests of the Gentoo Foundation and the health
of the project, and coordinate with attorneys, etc.

3) Contributor. I will continue to work with Zac Medico on resolving
various obscure Portage bugs (often this is more of an IRC discussion and
exploration of possibilities to solve the problem, which results in some
kind of definitive plan to address a long-standing bug.) I am also planning
to work with robbat2 on a genkernel rewrite and am open to other areas of
collaboration, both personally and between Gentoo and Funtoo.

4) Metastructure. I would like to start thinking about how to build a
positive future for those very senior Gentoo developers who have
traditionally experienced burn-out and cynicism.

5) Fund-raising. I would ideally like to see the Gentoo Foundation have an
operating budget of around .5M USD. I think this is an achievable goal.
This means having a positive vision for Gentoo that we can communicate
outwards and that resonates with the world.

6) Collaboration. I have some interesting ideas for how we can build
win-win relationships with Google, Sony and other organizations that are
using Gentoo -- we can do more than we are doing now.

7) Developer. Ongoing work on Portage and genkernel, and other areas.

Regards,

Daniel



On Fri, Dec 8, 2017 at 1:17 PM, Andreas K. Huettel <dilfridge@g.o>
wrote:

> Hi Daniel,
>
> I think it's a good thing that you intend to contribute to Gentoo directly
> again. After all, we are happy about all material contributions.
>
> That said...
>
> I don't see the point of the "non-voting council member" special treatment
> at
> all; I draw a hard line there. Council meetings are public and usually
> unmoderated, and constructive comments are always welcome. No special rules
> needed (and also no special rules possible, but I don't intend to hide
> behind
> formalities).
>
> My suggestion would be
> * you contribute (which is fully enough to say "Daniel is back and helping
> out
> Gentoo!")
> * you get to know people, and people get to know you
> * and you (try to) get elected to the council like everybody else.
>
> Let's be honest, I barely know you, and I've been around for about 7 years
> now. (That's much longer than you ever were Gentoo developer by the way...)
>
> And we should also take into consideration that George Santayana quote,
> "Those
> Who Do Not Learn History Are Doomed To Repeat It." I made it my task to
> read
> up old e-mail threads and logs, and you then stumble upon https://lwn.net/
> Articles/224615/ ...
>
> Cheers,
> Andreas
>
> --
> Andreas K. Hüttel
> dilfridge@g.o
> Gentoo Linux developer
> (council, toolchain, perl, libreoffice, comrel)
>