Truth and Honesty

One of the things I love about this Internet phase is the commitment many people have to truth and honesty. It’s absolutely wonderful how quickly the Web 2.0 crowd can come together to help and support people in crisis (I’m thinking Katrina victims, Jill Carroll, the Tsunami victims, etc...), how quickly facts can be ferreted out, and false information debunked. But I’ve got a problem. When the Web 2.0 folks starting talking about technology, I believe, there is a slant not toward truth and honesty but towards prejudice and hate. What am I talking about? Let’s look at Linux vs. Windows. Both have their place in the grand software scheme. Both have their pros and cons. But instead of looking at the differences honestly and being able to admit that “Yes, Windows does have value for some folks” many of the Web 2.0 techies just bash it. There is value in both.

A similar thing happens when talking about languages and databases. Let’s stop this madness. There is NO technology that is the magic silver bullet that will save all of IT and solve every problem on the planet. There is NO company that is perfect and never stumbles. There is NO person who never makes a mistake. People build technology and companies, and people are fallible. That’s just how it is. Sure we want to make sure that large companies like Microsoft, Google, Ford, etc..., don’t step on the little guy. But let’s give these companies a big “Hell yea!” when they do something right.

It would be nice to see all those smart people being honest about the pros and cons of a technology. To look beyond the obvious surface reasons why they think one thing is better than another. To really look at what people need and why they make the choices they do. Let’s get a little more truth and honesty in the technology arena and then let’s use that honesty to move forward and solve problems. After all that’s what engineers do.