Newbie needs to see a large project

[smarter_than_you]

"Robert Brewer" <fumanchu at amor.org> wrote in message > > > Why don't business users understand these arguments, or believe
> > > people's experiences?  
> 
> Alan Gauld:
> > Because they believe high powered consultancies, like Gartner, 
> > Forester etc... rather than their own people!
> > And because they live in hpe of finding the silver bullet that
> > will cut their IT spend...
> 
> Hmmm. Ask around. I think you'll find they're looking rather to make
> programmers a commodity that can be fired and hired at will; this leads
> to the use of "language experience" rather than "coding experience" as a
> metric. They believe programming is the use of someone else's tool, not
> the creation of a new one. Certain large software development houses
> feed this notion at every opportunity.
> 
Good point, but perhaps it gives management too much credit for
cleverness.  IMX the main reason people in positions of responsibility
make decisions that are obviously wrong to the rank and file is CYA --
Cover Your Ass.  No one will get fired for recommending Java for an
application where the majority of such recent projects were done in
Java.  However, recommending a somewhat less popular or well-known
tool provides a handy excuse to those who would lay blame when the
project goes belly-up (usually for reasons having nothing to do with
these sorts of decisions).

People (including management) are not so stupid really; they're just
selfish.  Most of the time what appear to be stupid decisions are
merely self-serving - IOW, they're stupid for the larger community but
smart for the individual.