From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from bedivere.hansenpartnership.com (bedivere.hansenpartnership.com [96.44.175.130]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by smtp.subspace.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id BC0B1A47 for ; Fri, 11 Aug 2023 03:29:52 +0000 (UTC) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/simple; d=hansenpartnership.com; s=20151216; t=1691724591; bh=2fFRzDcVoC64hvTY3rRVdC3UJiSoDVgzVVYzNeqa/RE=; h=Message-ID:Subject:From:To:Date:From; b=aPT34zDfgYkeDyFI0QdSp9kCSSkDJHvIxD/eDkZe7VSa2kgolNaNHUnWjNucLV68U wQkhMVaGcKQ8MMGxlqvxi6QQHg7A7MYoaNT52RbSHXuAyf/UYHjufogfWSEG4BdVlR CDMeBYekHjFYmmb/DLO2RKwKpvG2YEo8IkYhuhm8= Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by bedivere.hansenpartnership.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id BD97112864AB; Thu, 10 Aug 2023 23:29:51 -0400 (EDT) Received: from bedivere.hansenpartnership.com ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (bedivere.hansenpartnership.com [127.0.0.1]) (amavis, port 10024) with ESMTP id aCjionipzNzJ; Thu, 10 Aug 2023 23:29:51 -0400 (EDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/simple; d=hansenpartnership.com; s=20151216; t=1691724591; bh=2fFRzDcVoC64hvTY3rRVdC3UJiSoDVgzVVYzNeqa/RE=; h=Message-ID:Subject:From:To:Date:From; b=aPT34zDfgYkeDyFI0QdSp9kCSSkDJHvIxD/eDkZe7VSa2kgolNaNHUnWjNucLV68U wQkhMVaGcKQ8MMGxlqvxi6QQHg7A7MYoaNT52RbSHXuAyf/UYHjufogfWSEG4BdVlR CDMeBYekHjFYmmb/DLO2RKwKpvG2YEo8IkYhuhm8= Received: from [172.19.131.120] (unknown [216.250.210.86]) (using TLSv1.3 with cipher TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (256/256 bits) key-exchange ECDHE (prime256v1) server-signature RSA-PSS (2048 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by bedivere.hansenpartnership.com (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 54C1612865BD; Thu, 10 Aug 2023 23:29:47 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: Subject: [MAINTAINER SUMMIT] coping with stress as a maintainer From: James Bottomley To: ksummit@lists.linux.dev Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2023 22:29:37 -0500 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" User-Agent: Evolution 3.42.4 Precedence: bulk X-Mailing-List: ksummit@lists.linux.dev List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Stress has been a standard part of maintainer functions for a long time now. It comes from many source: internal deadline or porductivity pressures, requirements to justify what you do from corporate bigwigs, or simply the external flood of CVEs and syszbot reports that come in so rapidly that you get two more before you've worked on the first one. All of this contributes to maintainer burn out. Some maintainers have been at this longer than others and have developed effective (to then) strategies for coping with both internal and external stress. The proposal isn't that we present one coherent solution but that the more experienced maintainers relate coping and influence strategies that have worked for them. How do you cope with the bungee SVP who decides that open source isn't revenue generating enough to be considered in the corporate strategy and wants to proceed with the? or how do you avoid being up all night dealing with sysbot reports in a part of your code you know is never exercised. The proposal isn't that we have one true presentation on this, but that we listen to stories from Maintainers who've come up against these situations and evolved coping strategies (which may or may not be correct and which might not work for you but at least it shows how they try). Hopefully we can do a shared transfer of knowledge that doesn't result in finding the one true strategy (which likely doesn't exist), but which shows upcoming maintainers what we tried in the past, and what did and didn't work and gives them more confidence to face the challenges they will definitely run across as they build their external statue. The hardest part of facing most challenges like this is thinking you're alone in doing it. We definitely have the experience base to refute that thought, so we should be deploying it. James