Handling constructive criticism

[Walter Bright]

Jason House wrote:
> I am not so detatched from reality that I expect you to do everything.  D
> has become larger than a one man project.  You shouldn't be the one
> creating all the action plans, but you should be the one encouraging the
> community to pursue specific directions.  

I tried that once with DWT, and progress on it promptly halted (it has 
since been resurrected and finished, but there was a long hiatus there).

Essentially, I stink as a manager. The things that get done with D are 
ones done by people who don't need to be managed. They are entirely self 
motivated.


> A little empowerment can go a long way.  Who wants to dedicate their spare
> time to doing something that ultimately gets veto'd?  What you say may
> carry more weight than you realize.

I realize that what I say can carry a lot of weight - which is why I try 
to be very careful not to rain on anyone's parade here.


> If you state something is a good idea and ask for volunteers to do pieces, I
> bet you'll find volunteers.  There are many motivated people on this list
> that are actively looking to contribute to the D community (just look at
> all the proposals and discussions of proposals).
> 
> If someone makes a proposal and you encourage them to flesh it out and post
> in bugzilla, they probably will. Those of us that make language design
> proposals are already crazy enough to spend lots of our spare time
> developing ideas and explaining them to others.

Yes, and that's great!