[GRLUG] Linux holding students back????

[Tim Schmidt]

On Thu, Dec 11, 2008 at 8:56 AM, Joshua Burns <jdburnz at gmail.com> wrote:
> Are you kidding??

No, I'm not.  If your goal is to win people's hearts and minds,
insulting them is not the way to go about doing so.

> Additionally, there will be a meeting with the Ken,
> Karen and the superintendent

That's great.  I wish he could walk into that meeting with a
reputation as a calm, rational, reasoning individual.  Instead, Karen
has likely already shared his personally insulting, anti-union ranting
diatribe with all involved, and he'll walk in a pariah.

Ken seems to have significant persuasive charisma in face-to-face
interpersonal situations, I wouldn't doubt his ability to turn the
situation around in a meeting...  But that doesn't mean he had to make
the job so hard for himself.

Did the woman _deserve_ to be chewed out?  Certainly.  But if your
goal is marketing-related, there is nothing to be gained from
aggressive conflict.  Marketing is first and foremost about gaining
trust, and insults _never_ accomplish that goal.

(I emphasize a marketing-oriented point of view here, because Ken's a
self-identified Linux evangelist.  His stated goal is to spread Linux
(and FOSS) use as far and wide as possible.  That's a goal
accomplished through marketing.)

--tim