Torvalds, Linus (2000-09-06), Message to linux-kernel mailing list, retrieved: 2007-05-28

I'm a bastard. I have absolutely no clue why people can ever think otherwise. Yet they do. People think I'm a nice guy, and the fact is that I'm a scheming, conniving bastard who doesn't care for any hurt feelings or lost hours of work, if it just results in what I consider to be a better system. And I'm not just saying that. I'm really not a very nice person. I can say "I don't care" with a straight face, and really mean it.

— Linus Torvalds

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "I'm a bastard. I have absolutely no clue why people can ever think otherwise. Yet they do. People think I'm a nice guy, and the fact is that I'm a scheming, conniving bastard who doesn't care for any hurt feelings or lost hours of work, if it just results in what I consider to be a better system. And I'm not just saying that. I'm really not a very nice person. I can say "I don't care" with a straight face, and really mean it." in the context of "Torvalds, Linus (2000-09-06), Message to linux-kernel mailing list, retrieved: 2007-05-28" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Linus Torvalds" (Quotes, 2000s, 2000–04) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Linus Torvalds

About Linus Torvalds

Linus Benedict Torvalds (born 28 December 1969) is a Finnish-American computer programmer, best known as the creator of the Linux kernel.