This confusion is both astonishing, given the length of time GNU has been around. Yet it is also understandable, for many there's a missing distinction between GNU vs Linux project vs FreeBSD etc etc. The GNU operating system website explains the distinction pretty clearly on its home page.
+1. I highly recommend Ha-Joon-Chang's books, I've learned a lot about economics from him. He puts forward a strong argument that economic policy must be flexible, and shift with evolving times and technological changes. In other words, he's highly critical of ideologies, like f global free markets, or trickle down economics.
..or that for some individuals, those who suffer bipolar (such as myself) or clinical depression, there's a biological factor that has little relation to past circumstances.
The test command has certain rules depending on the number of arguments.
The most pertinent rule is:
For one argument, the expression is true if, and only if, the argument is not null.
In this case
[ -n $var ]
is the same as
test -n $var
$var is not quoted, so when this command is run, word splitting occurs and therefore $var is null. Which there falls into the one argument rule above.
I wonder if the frat house culture, the opulent office, the drink up debauchery and the "holacracy" may create a delusional sense of grandiosity that permeates from the company level to the employee? Just a thought.
The entire story in all its objective context will never be known, and those privy to the story, Horvath and those involved at Github carry more context than we will know. For Horvath, you have to give her credit to go public the way she did. That requires a lot of courage that could have negative ramifications on her career, which could indicate that she was strongly upset about the incidents she described. I don't know her or her motivations, but if she would be playing a pretty risky game if she were to lie. What I will say is that I'm tired of the continual denial or downplay of sexism in this industry. I've seen it first hand, some of drink ups I've attended were a disgrace, and the frat house culture that some tech organizations have cultivated not only make women uncomfortable, but men too including myself. This man-child culture is embarrassing and needs to stop and it's a very real problem.
It's reasonable to suggest that certain folk have a greater capacity to work longer before burnout. However, that choice will always come at a cost, depending on your current position in life. If you are a young single individual this may work for you well and you may get ahead to a certain extent, at the expense of other fruitful activities that would enrich your youth and allow to develop into a well rounded individual. If you are married and have a family, chances are your lifestyle will seriously impact your family life.
The other point to consider is that work longer does not mean working smarter. I would chose the latter, and I personally work hard at finding ways to be smarter at what I do without working 15 hour days. I also believe that outside activities, other hobbies, socializing provides less obvious but valuable benefits to your skill.