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Rant-an-Plan!

It’s been a while – not for me, but for you. I prepared some blog posts, which are not yet done, or are not ready for an announcement yet. But this one is kind of a special one.. It’s about ranting and my plans..

Recent happenings made me write this one :) For a few years or so, there has been this tool called Twitter – very nice thing, if you use it right. Lately – for a few months or so? – I’ve come to use Twitter as an outlet for my work/life imbalance. And users and especially friends have noticed that.. I heard a few times now, that I sound arrogant, disrespectful and maybe a bit harsh. Fortunately, I know most of my followers and they know that I’m usually not arrogant and only sometimes disrespectful (e.g. wearing a T-Shirt at BoSW ;)). About the rest I really should not care, should I? Well, since I gained some publicity at Open Expo and at BoSW, you may find my tweets pretty quick. So, this is quite a new situation – people watching me. The problem is, they are not only watching me, they also identify me with the company I work for.

So, I think I need to explain myself for once and for all – I’m no man of bullshitbingo. I don’t think, light would have been that much of a success if it wouldn’t take the shortest path from A to B.
I like being honest, being direct and being precise. What I really really hate is feedback in the form of “well, I somehow really don’t like to look of that button in the sense of….” – WTF?! I really don’t want to being forced to parse your sentence and getting out the core essence. Could you please do that for me? And this is no wonderland. Don’t feel personally attacked if your code is crap. That happens.
Unfortunately, it happens to me more often than I’d wish :)
When I rant, I really don’t think I could do it so much better – about that I really don’t know – but I know that it is crap. Did you ever drive a Fiat? You somehow just know that it is crap, even if you couldn’t actually build a better one yourself.
It’s not that I’m arrogant – I would be if I take the nice way and not telling others the truth.

Why I really love twitter is the instant feedback. It’s the valve for so much – happiness, hate.. everything. And usually you twitter within the first 60 seconds of your thought. If someone wrote “Gosh, I hate GottaGo, it’s just sooo friggin slow” on Twitter – that would be the best feedback ever. It’s what someone really cares about – the first impression if you will.
Or even a less precise one: “Holy crap, which moron did that GottaGo thing?!” – Sounds personal, eh? Well, it is not. It is against the ideas and the code behind GottaGo, not against me. But I know instantly that something that I did really failed for that guy – again, an important first impression.
Catching that is so important for a developer. (Since it’s Twitter, you can respond!)

I’d really like to say “Sorry”, but I don’t see any reason. Usually, I mean what I tweet. I may think “why couldn’t I just wait a minute before I tweeted” but the core of what I mean is there – with emotions! When I say, “[Ubuntu] Linux developers seem to be a bunch of morons if they wonder why they don’t have a real user base”, then I most probably mean it that way. (This example is based on the Ubuntu redesign debate). I could write that sentence as “Linux developers may not doing the right thing when they think they know UI design better than a UI specialist”. How nice of me, right? Well, it’s not really my opinion. Because in my eyes, they are a bunch of.. They are sure not in a way of development and whatnot, but socially and user friendliness?
Blahblah.. what I want to say is: I mean what I say, it’s the most honest thing I can offer you. Deal with it and use it or stop writing software and making decisions.

Is it really necessary to be rude and do it in public? No. It’s just so convenient. And usually, I fight with a problem until I’m reeeeally pissed off. That’s the moment I twitter :) Why? Because I usually hate it so bad that I’d love to squeeze and punch someone really hard. And twitter gives me the same opportunity as we did in Kindergarten: pulling your pants down and tell others you have an ugly girlfriend!
Yes, I really need to grow up – one day. Until then, my idealism will hunt and bug you all. Until I’m dull and worn out, I will always be honest and direct – and I expect the same from you.

To the company: my company must hate me for my tweets – I would :) They really don’t have anything to do with this. And they are not really forbidding me to tweet.. And if you prefer a nice looking company, filled with ties and lies, you are probably better off without me.

If you still think that you can’t stand it anymore: please please please please unfollow me and we can go drink a beer or whatever. I really don’t mind someone not following me.

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Filed under: General, Information on June 23, 2009 at 11:06 pm by marc.
Tags: rant explain twitter liip