RE: [xml-dev] Don't Let Architecture Astronauts Scare You

["Paul Brown" <prb@fivesight.com>]

> From: Dare Obasanjo
> When I see research/academic experience on someone's resume I 
> don't think "Hmmm, there's someone who can solve problems" 
> instead I think "There's someone who would rather spend time 
> on politics and pontification than work on shipping a working 
> product". 

Low blow, but I'll tip my hat because I suppose it is only reciprocal.  The reality is that the software world needs researchers, visionaries, implementers, marketers, etc., and each should be careful about blindly casting stones at the others.

Academics/researchers are those with sufficient passion and perserverance to tolerate the politics, pontification, and relative poverty that come with the opportunity to pursue a subject of personal interest.  Successful research comes only through experience, and the whole point is to aim ridiculously high and see what you hit (or miss)!

> Your criticism of Joel's awareness of the problems that Web 
> Services are trying to solve may be correct but you 
> significantly weakened your argument with the unnecessary ad hominim. 

I'll offer a public apology for the ad hominem and any accompanying aspersion cast on Joel's apparently ample accomplishments as an application developer, but I stand by my invitation to buy him a membership to the Flat Earth Society.

	-- Paul