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List:       python-dev
Subject:    [Python-Dev] Gauging community appraisal for public efforts (was:
From:       Ben Finney <ben+python () benfinney ! id ! au>
Date:       2010-01-28 9:47:37
Message-ID: 87y6ji1rye.fsf_-_ () benfinney ! id ! au
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Neal Norwitz <nnorwitz@gmail.com> writes:

> >> On Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 2:54 AM, Ben Finney <ben+python@benfinney.id.au> wrote:
> >> > The book "Beautiful Testing", published by O'Reilly, might help
> >> > <URL:http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596159825>.
>
> Ben, thanks. Your comment gave me a great laugh and I really
> appreciated it. :-)
>
> The chapter is about the general Python development process, including
> testing, static analysis, dynamic analysis, including Fusil among
> other things.

That alone sounds worth the acquisition of the book. If anyone wants to
buy me a gift, that book would be a good choice.

> One of my points to Victor and everyone else like him is that even
> though it may seem no one is listening to you or cares, you might be
> surprised to find out how many people really are paying attention and
> do care. If you have something you want to do, make it happen. One
> person really can do amazing things. You may never get recognized for
> much of what you do, that doesn't make it any less important.

Indeed.

There is a saying something to the effect that one should read one's
feedback, whether praise or insult; but *keep* the praise, and forget
the insults. Though it superficially sounds trite, I would argue there's
a sound sociological basis for it:

People, in the main, tend to put much more effort into complaining about
things they don't like than they do praising things they do like.
Further, the complaints will be repeated many times, while the praise
will tend not to.

This has the familiar effect of hugely amplifying the volume of
displeased responses, far out of proportion to those giving praise. The
motivation to praise is weak, and occurs rarely; the motivation to
complain is strong, and occurs repeatedly until the complainant gets
satisfation. Thus, many expressed complaints are repetitions, and many
comments of praise never reach us.

Therefore, for any public action one performs, if we posit an
equal number of people pleased and displeased with it, the volume of
complaints will be vastly more than the volume of praise. Even if we
assume a great number of people are pleased and only a few are
displeased, we can *still* expect the expressed responses to have a
higher proportion of displeasure.

So, if one wants to have a good internal gauge of popular response to
one's action, one must weigh complaints vastly less than the weight of
praise.

Not only is it a good estimate of the truth, it will also have the
beneficial effect of making one feel much better about the feedback.
It's also a good reason to give public praise in response to a specific
praiseworthy action: it's worth far more :-)

-- 
 \       "One of the most important things you learn from the internet |
  `\   is that there is no ‘them' out there. It's just an awful lot of |
_o__)                                            ‘us'." —Douglas Adams |
Ben Finney

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