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Assholes are killing your project
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Reputation Results Contributors The Community Circle
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Your ability to get results depends on your community.
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What makes a great community? The best Assholes Most of us
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What isn't an asshole? Conflict is good You need to differentiate between personal attacks and technical criticisms.
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What is an asshole? Two tests <ul><li>After talking to the asshole, does the target feel oppressed, humiliated, de-energized, or belittled?
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Does the asshole target those less powerful? </li></ul>
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What is an asshole? Look for patterns Everyone has a bad day sometimes. For assholes, every day is a bad day.
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How many good interactions does it take to cancel out one bad one?
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5 good for 1 bad. Your team needs 5/6 positive people just to break even!
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Fight Flickr: undergroundbastard Men tend to
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Flight Flickr: noeluap Women tend toward By tolerating assholes, you alienate women
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Problems assholes cause to targets <ul><li>48% decreased their effort
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47% worked less time
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38% dropped their quality
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66% declined in performance
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80% lost time worrying
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63% lost time avoiding
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78% became less committed
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25% quit; 20% of witnesses quit! </li></ul>
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Cascading effects amplify the problem Flickr: wsdot Cascading effects amplify the problem
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Flickr: wsdot Word of mouth transforms one asshole into an avalanche
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Problems assholes cause to projects <ul><li>Reduced innovation & creativity
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Reduced cooperation & cohesion
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Cost of targets' retribution toward project
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Impaired cooperation from external projects & people
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Impaired ability to attract the best & brightest
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Recruiting more assholes </li></ul>
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TCA: Total Cost of Asshole Team lead Developer relations team Project leadership Recruiting & training new developers Targets & witnesses __________________ Total Cost of Asshole + + + +
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An asshole is incompetent Flickr: escapo Social and technical ability are orthogonal. One never balances out the other.
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How do you fix it? Flickr: trp0
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Flickr: kalandrakas Personal interactions— Have a conference
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Flickr: hashir People need somewhere to complain and a sense that action will happen— rapid feedback
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Flickr: shannonmary Are you here to fix people or accomplish your goals? At some point, it's time to cut off the detour.
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How do you prevent it? Flickr: redefyne
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Flickr: koenvereeken Be quantitative Show that social aspects have metrics, too. Developers believe numbers.
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Flickr: soldiersmediacenter What are your standards? Is “good” really good enough? You are a SWAT team, you need great!
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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.
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Want to learn more? Read these
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In the long run, dealing with assholes is never worth it.
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Donnie Berkholz Gentoo Linux [email_address]
Why do I think you came to this talk? Why am I giving it?
Community is critical Best predictor of long-term viability How do you attract new contributors and users? Your brand. Function of your ability to create results. Key point: Ability to accomplish your mission
Good to Great Continual improvement – greatness is a process Metrics Are a few assholes balanced by a few amazing people? – come back to this later
Intent to harm not required Difference between how a person treats the powerless and the powerful is a great judge of character
Pattern! States vs traits. Consistency across places and times Tolerance builds up over time. You don't realize who's an asshole.
Are a few assholes balanced by a few amazing people? Negative interactions 5x worse than positive
Are a few assholes balanced by a few amazing people? Negative interactions 5x worse than positive
Are a few assholes balanced by a few amazing people? Negative interactions 5x worse than positive
Are a few assholes balanced by a few amazing people? Negative interactions 5x worse than positive
Are a few assholes balanced by a few amazing people? Negative interactions 5x worse than positive
Male targets: reciprocity Female targets: avoidance (Pearson & Porath) – pic: fight vs flight Targets hold leaders at fault Role models
Male targets: reciprocity Female targets: avoidance (Pearson & Porath) – pic: fight vs flight Targets hold leaders at fault Role models
External cooperation & recruitment: based on reputation, caused by word of mouth Recruitment is different in FLOSS from biz; everyone has the power
Refusal to confront reality Dreadful stats - 50% of targets considered quitting, 12% of targets quit. One asshole, multiple targets. Reputation: word of mouth. Cascade
Technical and social ability are orthogonal. A good coder has one; a good developer has both.
Personal interactions Modeling Reporting: encourage; have a place; respond; rapid feedback Is it your job to change them?
Personal interactions Modeling
Reporting: encourage; have a place; respond; rapid feedback
Is it your job to change them?
Culture is like molasses, not like code. Problem of change in diffuse organizations: persuasion, shared interests, reputation
Be quantitative
Recruitment standards – is “good” good enough?
Clear expectations set a baseline: code of conduct