Date: Thu, 3 Jun 1999 23:32:51 -0400 (EDT) From: "Andrew Atrens" <atrens@nortelnetworks.com> To: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Once upon a time (was: Matt's Commit status) Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.10.9906032232290.30219-100000@hcarp00g.ca.nortel.com> In-Reply-To: <199906040131.SAA01566@apollo.backplane.com>
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Hi Matt, -core, et al,
Speaking as a long time user of FreeBSD I am continually impressed by the
quality of _all_ the people involved, their work and their dedication.
I don't pretend to know the burdens of -core, but I do feel strongly that
this is the wrong medium for this discussion.
As has been stated over and over again - email is an absolutely horrendous
method of communication - PLEASE let's let this thread _die_, and take up
Jordan on his offer to come together at USENIX.
Let me tell you all a long, boring story. Maybe you'll all be so bored
you'll let this thread die. :)
Here at Nortel I work on a team that has grown from roughly 100 to over
500 in the last three years and is divided roughly 70/30 between Ottawa,
Canada and Harlow, UK. In the early days of the project even with the
benefit of unlimited phone calls, voice conferences, video conferences,
and of course email, a discernable split arose between folks `across the
pond'. Though no one would admit it, in subtle ways people were `flipping
the bozo bit' with their unseen counterparts. Since as you know its easier
to disagree than it is to agree, this led to a fair amount of duplicated
effort, and unnecessarily complicated and bloated the code. The solution
was simply to put people on planes. Folks in the UK came to Ottawa for
weeks at a time, and we went to the UK for similar. It was amazing the
difference it made. Once people realized that the person at the other end
of the wire wasn't a bozo, and that we all desparately wanted the project
to succeed, the barriers melted - and people began looking for ways to
agree.
Of course we all didn't live happily ever after, no one was totally
thrilled with all the design decisions that were made, but in the end we
were first to market, with a solid product.
Zzzzz...
Andrew.
--
+--
| Andrew Atrens Nortel Networks, Ottawa, Canada. |
| All opinions expressed are my own, not those of any employer. |
--+
Heller's Law: The first myth of management is that it exists.
Johnson's Corollary: Nobody really knows what is going on
anywhere within the organization.
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