Assholes are killing your project

Reputation Results Contributors The Community Circle

Your ability to get results depends on your community.

What makes a great community? The best Assholes Most of us

What isn't an asshole? Conflict is good You need to differentiate between personal attacks and technical criticisms.

What is an asshole? Two tests
After talking to the asshole, does the target feel oppressed, humiliated, de-energized, or belittled?
Does the asshole target those less powerful?

What is an asshole? Look for patterns Everyone has a bad day sometimes. For assholes, every day is a bad day.

How many good interactions does it take to cancel out one bad one?

5 good for 1 bad. Your team needs 5/6 positive people just to break even!

Fight Flickr: undergroundbastard Men tend to

Flight Flickr: noeluap Women tend toward By tolerating assholes, you alienate women

Problems assholes cause to targets
48% decreased their effort
47% worked less time
38% dropped their quality
66% declined in performance
80% lost time worrying
63% lost time avoiding
78% became less committed
25% quit; 20% of witnesses quit!

Cascading effects amplify the problem Flickr: wsdot Cascading effects amplify the problem

Flickr: wsdot Word of mouth transforms one asshole into an avalanche

Problems assholes cause to projects
Reduced innovation & creativity
Reduced cooperation & cohesion
Cost of targets' retribution toward project
Impaired cooperation from external projects & people
Impaired ability to attract the best & brightest
Recruiting more assholes

TCA: Total Cost of Asshole Team lead Developer relations team Project leadership Recruiting & training new developers Targets & witnesses __________________ Total Cost of Asshole + + + +

An asshole is incompetent Flickr: escapo Social and technical ability are orthogonal. One never balances out the other.

How do you fix it? Flickr: trp0

Flickr: kalandrakas Personal interactions— Have a conference

Flickr: hashir People need somewhere to complain and a sense that action will happen— rapid feedback

Flickr: shannonmary Are you here to fix people or accomplish your goals? At some point, it's time to cut off the detour.

How do you prevent it? Flickr: redefyne

Flickr: koenvereeken Be quantitative Show that social aspects have metrics, too. Developers believe numbers.

Flickr: soldiersmediacenter What are your standards? Is “good” really good enough? You are a SWAT team, you need great!

Flickr: mount_otz Provide expectations Nobody knows your culture when they start. Do you want them to learn it from an asshole? Provide a code of conduct.

Want to learn more? Read these

In the long run, dealing with assholes is never worth it.

Donnie Berkholz Gentoo Linux [email_address]

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Assholes are killing your project

by Donnie Berkholz

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