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** Reply to message from John Cowan <jcowan@reutershealth.com> on Thu, 24 Oct
2002 06:38:08 -0400 (EDT)
> > The rest of your argument comes down to "if you're right how come
> > nobody else agrees with you". That argument wasn't that convincing
> > when used against Copernicus. Its not convincing now.
>
> Every crackpot calls upon Copernicus (or Galileo). Doing so makes
> you look like a crackpot.
Actually, one thing I learned from my days as a physicist was that if you try
to do something that is too far outside of the accepted sphere of knowledge,
your peers are unable to assess the context of what you have done, and hence
they are unable to assess the relevance and value of what you have done. So,
from a professional point of view, if you want to succeed with an idea that
seems a long way from the current orthodoxy, the strategy of least resistance
will involve incremental developments that lead people slowly from where they
are now to where you think they should be.
Also, in the spirit of "don't ask what your country can do for you", my
personal mantra is that if you cannot convince people that you are right, there
is a high probability that you are wrong, and it's time to re-examine why your
right/wrong criteria are different to everyone else's, and whether that
difference is justified. That said, "xml-dev" is not "everybody", it's just one
select and special community. So, it also depends not just on what you ask, but
who you ask.
Cheers,
Tony.
====
Anthony B. Coates, Information & Software Architect
mailto:abcoates@TheOffice.net
MDDL Editor (Market Data Definition Language)
http://www.mddl.org/
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