I disagree. The notion that "you have to accept the arrogance and obnoxious attitude of high level software engineers because it is inevitable that the type of people who excel at creating software are that way because they don't focus on social skills". Every one of us can work to be more polite and caring of the emotions of others. Especially if you know you suck at it you ought to use effort to be better in that way.

Justifying treating others poorly just enables more people being hurt. We should not reward people for this sort of behavior. Turning a blind eye to it because "they are great software engineers" is not right.

Your comment treads very much into the "for the greater good" mentality where you can justify anything based on the results.

"Unique character trait" my ass. Obnoxious aholes are just that. Obnoxious aholes. They need to fucking stop and be more kind.

You are now reading things which were simply not said nor implied.

It is also quite ironic that while you talk about "being nice/kind" your posts are the ones containing inflammatory phrases like "uncontrolled lunatic", "arrogance and obnoxious attitude", "my ass" and "obnoxious aholes" !

Coming back specifically to Linus, he has never been any of the above. He has been direct and harsh when needed (there is a world of difference between this and the phrases you have used), otherwise he has shown a lot of restraint. For example, he has said that due to the nature of email communication, one has to be direct since a lot of non-verbal and personal nuances cannot be conveyed which is exactly right.

I am sure we can all recollect email chains/discussions/meetings where nothing was ever achieved because people did not want to offend somebody with thin skin in spite of the fact that they were squarely to blame. Being direct and calling them out is not being obnoxious/arrogant but simply moving things along towards a goal. To be nice/kind does not mean everybody has to be mollycoddled and tip-toed around due not wishing to "hurt their feelings". Engineering is a hard science and while we have to follow social mores and etiquettes this should be regulated (i.e. we should know when to break them) so that progress towards the end goal is not derailed.

There is a big difference between what you communicate broadly as a public figure and random comments under a throwaway.

Linus has said many attacking things publicly under a position of authority.

What I say here bears no weight because if what I say is disliked I am simply downvoted and dismissed.

I disagree that being offensive solves anything. I am fine ( as you've pointed out ) with being extremely offensive and attacking the shit out of anyone I see fit, but I don't think it is particularly effective or a quality trait.

Anytime you say things in an offensive way, you are intentionally being hurtful. This is not a good thing, and I don't think is justifiable.

My doing it in no way makes it right, nor invalidates my judgement of those who make similar statements to a broad audience.

Consider the effect of me ranting here. No one is going to go: "Wow I'd better pay attention to what permille42 says he is an expert. He must be attacking people for a good reason."

Nope. Anytime I rant most readers will just immediately dismiss everything I said, mostly because my tone tends to be so aggressive. I don't think such people are wrong to dismiss as such aggressive statements do tend to be from people who are offbase and don't know what they are talking about...