He annotated a passive-aggressive annotation on a patch I made and basically hijacked a presentation I made because the library I presented did not fit his aesthetics & work style. I don't remember ever acting in an uncivil way toward him.
If you regularly act like an asshole, expect to get a reputation and to be treated like one (even unfairly).
Btw, I'm glad you are bringing civility up. For some reason the lack of a civil vibe (at least from my experience in the Ruby community) really bothers me.
I want to oppose to the impression that there is a lack of civil vibe within the ruby community. I work on the Padrino project and most of the communication with the ruby community, our committers and our users is highly enjoyable. Jerks can be found everywhere, but they are a minority.
It really depends on what projects and groups of people you're interacting with. We have a wonderful community around Ruby Mendicant University, but it's because the folks there really care about teaching and learning as a primary goal, so they self-select towards being friendly.
Ruby isn't really a community anymore, it's an ecosystem. So if the current neighborhoods you're hanging out in don't seem too friendly, look for other ones. Different projects and organizations have different culture, and even if the union of all of those distinct groups is on a downward trend, there are still new and old groups that are going strong who are nice and helpful.
> Fortune 500 companies are run by 499 extroverts, plus Bill Gates. There are 435 extroverts in the House of Representatives and 100 in the Senate, two from each state.
Edited to add: I read an amusing story about Gates' childhood once. His mother had called him to dinner and he didn't come right away. She called out "What are you doing?" and he shot back, "I'm thinking! Have you ever tried thinking?"
Granted, thinking is an activity normally associated with introverts. But that doesn't mean extroverts can't do it. And the aggressiveness Gates showed in this incident -- and indeed, has shown many times in his life -- is not a quality of an introvert.
Extroverts can be bad team members when they're assholes. Assholes come in many flavors, but an extroverted asshole often makes a worse team member than an introverted asshole.
Introverts can be effective communicators when they've thought through the problem at hand and therefore know exactly how to make sense of it. Extroverts are sometimes too distracted to think deeply about something.
I think the article is talking about a specific way of talking about "team skills" and "communication skills". Some people tend to equate those terms with the ability to make small talk with everybody, be popular at parties, etc. Those kinds of "skills" are definitely lacking in introverts, yet expected of everybody where extroverted assholes are in positions of power.
Oakland could has so much going for it, yet the city continues to nosedive. Oakland is:
* centrally located to SF, SJ, and the rest of the Easy Bay.
* cheaper than SF or SJ (unless you live in the Hills)
* an international airport.
* an international shipping port.
* convenient BART access from SF and the East Bay
* not far from UC Berkeley.
* (somewhat) cleaner than SF.
Full disclosure: I live in Oakland, but plan to move. I was bullish on Oakland, but not its city government.
> I appreciate it when people pay taxes because I like public transportation, fire safety, paved roads, bridges, public schools, police officers, health inspectors, safety inspectors, public parks, libraries, clean air, (relatively) fair corporations, airports, hospitals, court systems, electricity, vehicle regulation, elections, veteran associations, child support, public television...
I'll be sure to remember that every time the government raises taxes and pay up without asking any questions or being critical.