Based on kernel version 4.9. Page generated on 2016-12-21 14:35 EST.
1 .. _managementstyle: 2 3 Linux kernel management style 4 ============================= 5 6 This is a short document describing the preferred (or made up, depending 7 on who you ask) management style for the linux kernel. It's meant to 8 mirror the CodingStyle document to some degree, and mainly written to 9 avoid answering [#f1]_ the same (or similar) questions over and over again. 10 11 Management style is very personal and much harder to quantify than 12 simple coding style rules, so this document may or may not have anything 13 to do with reality. It started as a lark, but that doesn't mean that it 14 might not actually be true. You'll have to decide for yourself. 15 16 Btw, when talking about "kernel manager", it's all about the technical 17 lead persons, not the people who do traditional management inside 18 companies. If you sign purchase orders or you have any clue about the 19 budget of your group, you're almost certainly not a kernel manager. 20 These suggestions may or may not apply to you. 21 22 First off, I'd suggest buying "Seven Habits of Highly Effective 23 People", and NOT read it. Burn it, it's a great symbolic gesture. 24 25 .. [#f1] This document does so not so much by answering the question, but by 26 making it painfully obvious to the questioner that we don't have a clue 27 to what the answer is. 28 29 Anyway, here goes: 30 31 .. _decisions: 32 33 1) Decisions 34 ------------ 35 36 Everybody thinks managers make decisions, and that decision-making is 37 important. The bigger and more painful the decision, the bigger the 38 manager must be to make it. That's very deep and obvious, but it's not 39 actually true. 40 41 The name of the game is to **avoid** having to make a decision. In 42 particular, if somebody tells you "choose (a) or (b), we really need you 43 to decide on this", you're in trouble as a manager. The people you 44 manage had better know the details better than you, so if they come to 45 you for a technical decision, you're screwed. You're clearly not 46 competent to make that decision for them. 47 48 (Corollary:if the people you manage don't know the details better than 49 you, you're also screwed, although for a totally different reason. 50 Namely that you are in the wrong job, and that **they** should be managing 51 your brilliance instead). 52 53 So the name of the game is to **avoid** decisions, at least the big and 54 painful ones. Making small and non-consequential decisions is fine, and 55 makes you look like you know what you're doing, so what a kernel manager 56 needs to do is to turn the big and painful ones into small things where 57 nobody really cares. 58 59 It helps to realize that the key difference between a big decision and a 60 small one is whether you can fix your decision afterwards. Any decision 61 can be made small by just always making sure that if you were wrong (and 62 you **will** be wrong), you can always undo the damage later by 63 backtracking. Suddenly, you get to be doubly managerial for making 64 **two** inconsequential decisions - the wrong one **and** the right one. 65 66 And people will even see that as true leadership (*cough* bullshit 67 *cough*). 68 69 Thus the key to avoiding big decisions becomes to just avoiding to do 70 things that can't be undone. Don't get ushered into a corner from which 71 you cannot escape. A cornered rat may be dangerous - a cornered manager 72 is just pitiful. 73 74 It turns out that since nobody would be stupid enough to ever really let 75 a kernel manager have huge fiscal responsibility **anyway**, it's usually 76 fairly easy to backtrack. Since you're not going to be able to waste 77 huge amounts of money that you might not be able to repay, the only 78 thing you can backtrack on is a technical decision, and there 79 back-tracking is very easy: just tell everybody that you were an 80 incompetent nincompoop, say you're sorry, and undo all the worthless 81 work you had people work on for the last year. Suddenly the decision 82 you made a year ago wasn't a big decision after all, since it could be 83 easily undone. 84 85 It turns out that some people have trouble with this approach, for two 86 reasons: 87 88 - admitting you were an idiot is harder than it looks. We all like to 89 maintain appearances, and coming out in public to say that you were 90 wrong is sometimes very hard indeed. 91 - having somebody tell you that what you worked on for the last year 92 wasn't worthwhile after all can be hard on the poor lowly engineers 93 too, and while the actual **work** was easy enough to undo by just 94 deleting it, you may have irrevocably lost the trust of that 95 engineer. And remember: "irrevocable" was what we tried to avoid in 96 the first place, and your decision ended up being a big one after 97 all. 98 99 Happily, both of these reasons can be mitigated effectively by just 100 admitting up-front that you don't have a friggin' clue, and telling 101 people ahead of the fact that your decision is purely preliminary, and 102 might be the wrong thing. You should always reserve the right to change 103 your mind, and make people very **aware** of that. And it's much easier 104 to admit that you are stupid when you haven't **yet** done the really 105 stupid thing. 106 107 Then, when it really does turn out to be stupid, people just roll their 108 eyes and say "Oops, he did it again". 109 110 This preemptive admission of incompetence might also make the people who 111 actually do the work also think twice about whether it's worth doing or 112 not. After all, if **they** aren't certain whether it's a good idea, you 113 sure as hell shouldn't encourage them by promising them that what they 114 work on will be included. Make them at least think twice before they 115 embark on a big endeavor. 116 117 Remember: they'd better know more about the details than you do, and 118 they usually already think they have the answer to everything. The best 119 thing you can do as a manager is not to instill confidence, but rather a 120 healthy dose of critical thinking on what they do. 121 122 Btw, another way to avoid a decision is to plaintively just whine "can't 123 we just do both?" and look pitiful. Trust me, it works. If it's not 124 clear which approach is better, they'll eventually figure it out. The 125 answer may end up being that both teams get so frustrated by the 126 situation that they just give up. 127 128 That may sound like a failure, but it's usually a sign that there was 129 something wrong with both projects, and the reason the people involved 130 couldn't decide was that they were both wrong. You end up coming up 131 smelling like roses, and you avoided yet another decision that you could 132 have screwed up on. 133 134 135 2) People 136 --------- 137 138 Most people are idiots, and being a manager means you'll have to deal 139 with it, and perhaps more importantly, that **they** have to deal with 140 **you**. 141 142 It turns out that while it's easy to undo technical mistakes, it's not 143 as easy to undo personality disorders. You just have to live with 144 theirs - and yours. 145 146 However, in order to prepare yourself as a kernel manager, it's best to 147 remember not to burn any bridges, bomb any innocent villagers, or 148 alienate too many kernel developers. It turns out that alienating people 149 is fairly easy, and un-alienating them is hard. Thus "alienating" 150 immediately falls under the heading of "not reversible", and becomes a 151 no-no according to :ref:`decisions`. 152 153 There's just a few simple rules here: 154 155 (1) don't call people d*ckheads (at least not in public) 156 (2) learn how to apologize when you forgot rule (1) 157 158 The problem with #1 is that it's very easy to do, since you can say 159 "you're a d*ckhead" in millions of different ways [#f2]_, sometimes without 160 even realizing it, and almost always with a white-hot conviction that 161 you are right. 162 163 And the more convinced you are that you are right (and let's face it, 164 you can call just about **anybody** a d*ckhead, and you often **will** be 165 right), the harder it ends up being to apologize afterwards. 166 167 To solve this problem, you really only have two options: 168 169 - get really good at apologies 170 - spread the "love" out so evenly that nobody really ends up feeling 171 like they get unfairly targeted. Make it inventive enough, and they 172 might even be amused. 173 174 The option of being unfailingly polite really doesn't exist. Nobody will 175 trust somebody who is so clearly hiding his true character. 176 177 .. [#f2] Paul Simon sang "Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover", because quite 178 frankly, "A Million Ways to Tell a Developer He Is a D*ckhead" doesn't 179 scan nearly as well. But I'm sure he thought about it. 180 181 182 3) People II - the Good Kind 183 ---------------------------- 184 185 While it turns out that most people are idiots, the corollary to that is 186 sadly that you are one too, and that while we can all bask in the secure 187 knowledge that we're better than the average person (let's face it, 188 nobody ever believes that they're average or below-average), we should 189 also admit that we're not the sharpest knife around, and there will be 190 other people that are less of an idiot than you are. 191 192 Some people react badly to smart people. Others take advantage of them. 193 194 Make sure that you, as a kernel maintainer, are in the second group. 195 Suck up to them, because they are the people who will make your job 196 easier. In particular, they'll be able to make your decisions for you, 197 which is what the game is all about. 198 199 So when you find somebody smarter than you are, just coast along. Your 200 management responsibilities largely become ones of saying "Sounds like a 201 good idea - go wild", or "That sounds good, but what about xxx?". The 202 second version in particular is a great way to either learn something 203 new about "xxx" or seem **extra** managerial by pointing out something the 204 smarter person hadn't thought about. In either case, you win. 205 206 One thing to look out for is to realize that greatness in one area does 207 not necessarily translate to other areas. So you might prod people in 208 specific directions, but let's face it, they might be good at what they 209 do, and suck at everything else. The good news is that people tend to 210 naturally gravitate back to what they are good at, so it's not like you 211 are doing something irreversible when you **do** prod them in some 212 direction, just don't push too hard. 213 214 215 4) Placing blame 216 ---------------- 217 218 Things will go wrong, and people want somebody to blame. Tag, you're it. 219 220 It's not actually that hard to accept the blame, especially if people 221 kind of realize that it wasn't **all** your fault. Which brings us to the 222 best way of taking the blame: do it for another guy. You'll feel good 223 for taking the fall, he'll feel good about not getting blamed, and the 224 guy who lost his whole 36GB porn-collection because of your incompetence 225 will grudgingly admit that you at least didn't try to weasel out of it. 226 227 Then make the developer who really screwed up (if you can find him) know 228 **in_private** that he screwed up. Not just so he can avoid it in the 229 future, but so that he knows he owes you one. And, perhaps even more 230 importantly, he's also likely the person who can fix it. Because, let's 231 face it, it sure ain't you. 232 233 Taking the blame is also why you get to be manager in the first place. 234 It's part of what makes people trust you, and allow you the potential 235 glory, because you're the one who gets to say "I screwed up". And if 236 you've followed the previous rules, you'll be pretty good at saying that 237 by now. 238 239 240 5) Things to avoid 241 ------------------ 242 243 There's one thing people hate even more than being called "d*ckhead", 244 and that is being called a "d*ckhead" in a sanctimonious voice. The 245 first you can apologize for, the second one you won't really get the 246 chance. They likely will no longer be listening even if you otherwise 247 do a good job. 248 249 We all think we're better than anybody else, which means that when 250 somebody else puts on airs, it **really** rubs us the wrong way. You may 251 be morally and intellectually superior to everybody around you, but 252 don't try to make it too obvious unless you really **intend** to irritate 253 somebody [#f3]_. 254 255 Similarly, don't be too polite or subtle about things. Politeness easily 256 ends up going overboard and hiding the problem, and as they say, "On the 257 internet, nobody can hear you being subtle". Use a big blunt object to 258 hammer the point in, because you can't really depend on people getting 259 your point otherwise. 260 261 Some humor can help pad both the bluntness and the moralizing. Going 262 overboard to the point of being ridiculous can drive a point home 263 without making it painful to the recipient, who just thinks you're being 264 silly. It can thus help get through the personal mental block we all 265 have about criticism. 266 267 .. [#f3] Hint: internet newsgroups that are not directly related to your work 268 are great ways to take out your frustrations at other people. Write 269 insulting posts with a sneer just to get into a good flame every once in 270 a while, and you'll feel cleansed. Just don't crap too close to home. 271 272 273 6) Why me? 274 ---------- 275 276 Since your main responsibility seems to be to take the blame for other 277 peoples mistakes, and make it painfully obvious to everybody else that 278 you're incompetent, the obvious question becomes one of why do it in the 279 first place? 280 281 First off, while you may or may not get screaming teenage girls (or 282 boys, let's not be judgmental or sexist here) knocking on your dressing 283 room door, you **will** get an immense feeling of personal accomplishment 284 for being "in charge". Never mind the fact that you're really leading 285 by trying to keep up with everybody else and running after them as fast 286 as you can. Everybody will still think you're the person in charge. 287 288 It's a great job if you can hack it.
