Back in the day, the unutterably brilliant Jon Postel framed what will forever be known as “Postel’s Law:”

Be conservative in what you emit, and liberal in what you accept.

It stems from RFC 761, and it was originally intended to guide the creation of computer-computer interactions. In a nutshell, the law describes the nature of a robust system: when sending to another system, adhere as closely to a rigid standard as possible, but when receiving data from another system, allow for as much variability as possible.

I’ve since taken this principle as foundational for computer human interaction. Humans are by nature vague, imprecise, and sloppy beasts, so the computer should be prepared to accept a great deal of variability from them, while delivering precision to them.

But lately, I’ve been musing on this as also a fundamental principle of human-human interaction. Continue reading →

I’ve been noticing a depressing trend among some contributors to OS projects. More and more I’m seeing people deliberately saying and doing outrageous things, and then excusing their behavior under the guise “I had to to that to make a point,” or some similar trash.

The idea itself isn’t new, talking heads on TV and radio have been doing that for decades. The theory behind it goes something like this: When the show’s host says something eminently reasonable, the listeners will sagely nod their heads and agree, but no one picks up the phone to call in and congratulate the host on being reasonable. On the other hand, if the host says something outrageous, people will call in by the droves, either to argue vehemently or to cheer the host on into further outrages.

Either way, the phones ring and the host has something to do for the next hour. If the callers are rational, the host backs down from the outrageous claim with the excuse that the hyperbole was necessary to get people thinking. Of course, that’s a convenient fiction, because the host really wasn’t trying to get people to think; the goal was to make people talk, not to make them think.
Continue reading →