lol Syntax Error (deliberate tech b***sh*t paper accepted by tech conference)

All:

Pointer to article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6622-2005Apr21.html?referrer=email

Kobielus kommentary:
We all know how easy it is to lapse into high-falutin b***sh*t in this biz, and how easy it is to pass off derivative ideas under a cloak of jargon. So much of modern technology is abstract, recombinant, sprawling contraptions of the mind. Some of these contraptions manage to get translated into stuff that actually improves people’s lives, while the rest just remains in the limbo between thought and illusion.

Which is why it doesn’t surprise me that a computer-generated string of syntactically well-formed tech-spew could be accepted more or less sight-unseen for publication by a tech conference. Being able to “talk the talk” gets many people very far in this biz. Marketing people, for example. Do they fully comprehend what they’re putting forth? Do their customers fully comprehend what they’re buying? Do the engineers who build this stuff understand every last detail, interface, component, and interaction? No…we’re winging it from day to day, and project to project. Hoping to bootstrap our understanding on the fly, plunge into the maelstrom of new complexity, and somehow stay on top and in the biz.

Which brings me to one of the alliterative mnemonic strings I’ve been brandishing for years: Where there’s change there’s complexity. Where’s there’s complexity there’s confusion. Where there’s confusion there’s a need for clarity. Where there’s a need for clarity there’s a need for consultants to come in, clean up the mess, and cash in. And/or contribute more confusing cognitive crapola. And still cash in.

And sometimes I wonder why I have a headache at quitting time. Quitting time—what an archaic notion. We’re swimming in this confusion, 24x7. Some are pissing in the pool.

Jim