On: What would you like to see most in minix? (1991)

[jlgreco]

Funny, though it is abundantly clear that you are not familiar with Linus's standard tone and vocabulary.

A Linus email doesn't typically make news unless it is vitriolic. You have a selection bias.

[nraynaud → jlgreco]

It's totally true, and even when it's vitriolic and in the news I would probably just read the title and skip the article.

[jlgreco → nraynaud]

Ah, some of them are very high quality though! Take this one for example:

  Ok, I have a better plan.

   - you learn to fly by flapping your arms fast enough
   - you then learn to pee burning gasoline
   - then, you fly around New York, setting everybody you see on fire, until 
     people make you emperor.

  Sounds like a good plan, no?

http://www.gelato.unsw.edu.au/archives/git/0506/5299.html

No matter how many times I read that, I always laugh.

[rmccue → jlgreco]

I love Linus' followup to this later:

    On Mon, 13 Jun 2005 linux@horizon.com wrote:
    > 
    > > But perhaps slightly impractical.
    > 
    > There are just few laws of physics it violates.

    Yeah, yeah. You avoided a few laws of phsyics of your own.

    [...]

    My plan was more interesting, I feel.

http://www.gelato.unsw.edu.au/archives/git/0506/5308.html

[asdfologist → jlgreco]

It's called a joke.

[michaelhoffman → asdfologist]

Aren't jokes usually funny?

[eevee → michaelhoffman]

You normally only hear jokes propagated if they're funny. You have a selection bias.

[nraynaud → michaelhoffman]

funniness is about the couple sender/receiver, not an intrinsic quality of the joke.

[abrahamsen → michaelhoffman]

One type of the jokes derive their fun from an unexpected twist. The fun is the surprise.

Another type of jokes reaffirms what the listener already believe. The fun is the comfort of being proven socially right. This was the second type of joke. Those are obviously only funny to those who believe in the cliché the joke is using. As Homer Simpson put it "It's funny because it's true!"

(explaining jokes is not funny)

[Ziomislaw → michaelhoffman]

I found it funny (though I stopped using Linux some time ago, maybe that is the reason?)

[swcool888 → jlgreco]

Agree!