I think I finally have it figured out

Joel Meulenberg joelmeulenberg at yahoo.com
Wed Aug 8 00:16:07 CDT 2001


> I'm no genius, but I think i've begun to figure out the game.  Anyone
> else have an idea on how to stop the buzzword merry-go-round?

Part of the problem is that vendors often have a financial motivation
to keep the out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new merry-go-round
(accelerated obsolescence) turning as fast as they can.

As you mentioned, I suppose educational institutions, recruiters, etc. 
benefit from such churn too.

This is sorta related to my mini-rant the other day about vendors
rushing headlong to implement whatever features, often inane, they
think will generate revenue, give them a lock-in advantage (barriers to
customer exit), etc., rather than focusing on solid fundamentals, a
good underlying model, etc.

On the other hand, can we really blame the vendors?  After all, it's
the customers who are "buying it" (in more ways than one).

So to have a sensible merry-go-round, I guess we need to have sensible,
thinking consumers.  We need people to have good BS detectors.  We need
people who can cut through all the fluffy words and superficial stuff
and grok the heart of things.  For example, we need business software
consumers who (I'm probably exhibiting a bias or something here) are
more interested in understanding a product's data model than seeing the
demo or reading the feature list from the glossy brochure.

I suppose the same thing goes for hiring practices.  If the people
doing the hiring are "buzzword matchers" or are impressed by "buzzword
compliance", then job hunters will cater to those filters by hopping on
the buzzword merry-go-round.

I'm willing to speculate that the type of people likely to gobble up
the vendor fluff du jour are the same type who are prone to hire by
buzzword compliance.

It's a vicious cycle of behavior that can only be broken by increased
education, thinking, and open communication - kind of like when you
(Matt) took time to find a candle in the dark (Joel Spolsky) and shared
the light with all of us on this list.

+Joel

=====
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http://grand-rapids.pm.org/

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