Lessons learned from Linux Kernel Development

There are no managers. Thousands of developers work on whatever they want. The "stable release series" were canceled. Over ten thousand lines of low-level C code are added every day (on average, including weekends and holidays).  It's some of the deepest, most technical, bare-metal programming you'll ever
see. No version control system was suitable, so they wrote their own. Their ad-hoc development model is now spreading to other projects like a virus. Sounds like a nightmare, right?

Except that it works. Linux dominates markets as diverse as super computers and cell phones. It powers Sony TVs and no-name MP3 players.  It supports more drivers and has been ported to more architectures than any other operating system ever.

What can ordinary developers learn from these hyper-productive rule-breakers?

Backgrounder:  http://www.linuxfoundation.org/publications/whowriteslinux.pdf