Reading 11: Linus & The Key to Success

In the "King of the Ball" section of Linus Torvalds's Just for Fun, he discusses the rise of Linux, some of the interesting and funny stories along the way, and some of the challenges, or "growing pains, he faced. Much of this success story of Linux aligns with our conversations of the bazaar framework of open source software - a framework that is of utmost importance to Linus. So much so that he lets the importance of it and his determination to make Linux a certain way guide all of his decisions about it in it's growth... even if this means negatively impacting relationships with other influential figures of his time like Steve Jobs.

Linus Torvalds, throughout his life and specifically in the stories he shares in this excerpt, stands by what he believes and what he wants Linux to mean to people, and I honestly respect that a lot. I laughed as I read his recollection of his conversation with Steve Jobs, at a point in time where other young tech entrepreneurs would be floored to have Steve Jobs call them and ask to use their work. Linus accepted the meeting, but then with no filter told them exactly what he thought of their products at the time. He writes about the Mach, "Frankly, I think it's a piece of crap" and that he "explained why [he] didn't like Mach. For understandable reasons that didn't go over very well". In his writing and in his interviews he has such a nonchalant way of saying things so honestly and bluntly. This combined with a bit of social awkwardness made him always seem to me a bit emotionless and rude. But now coming to the end of this book of his, I really respect how he stands his ground on things even when others around him, and specifically those in his industry, are going the other way.

For example, he talks of how, "A lot of people believe in working long days and doing double, triple, or even quadruple shifts. I'm not one of them." He goes against the grain with this and this is one of the ways he doesn't align with the idea of a "hacker" and "hacker culture" we discussed early on where people would spend all day and night at their computers. He continues, "Some people think that's just being lazy, but I want to throw my pillow at them. You may lose a few hours of your productive daytime if you sleep, oh, say ten hours a day, but those few hours when you are awake and you're alert, and your brain functions on all six cylinders." I completely agree with him, and love that someone in his position has stood his ground on this belief. Too many people in the tech world value productivity and efficiency over all other costs, including personal well being and sleep. We should all take Linus as a strong example for ourselves - you can sleep 10 hours and still have a success story like his. I think his life and beliefs like this outside of his work are what led him to be successful in it. To me, his success story means more about the hacker culture we learned about and more about the importance of open source. I think his story is a perfect example of how to live passionately, healthy, and happy in a career. I think others can have, have had, and will have similar success stories, and I hope to one day hear of a classmate with one! All I hope for myself is to have the same strong set of beliefs I live by that lead me to have a happy, balanced life both in and outside my passion-driven work. Maybe this is too much to ask... I just hope I find joy in a job and also get to sleep 10, or even just 8, hours a night :).