Reaganite conservatism axiomatically disdains government, and that creates a perverse incentive for conservative politicians to run government badly (or at least not to run it well), since the failure of government confirms conservative prejudices and (in theory) provides the movement with additional evidence in favor of its ideology. We just saw a particularly vivid example of this pathologically self-destructive dynamic at work in Bobby Jindal’s otherwise inexplicable attempt to turn the Bush administration’s utter ineptitude after Hurricane Katrina into a GOP talking point.
I generally try to keep politics out of my blog, because political discussion on the internet isn’t productive. But I think there is a good lesson in this bit of history, and it’s very applicable to software development.
Wait, how exactly is it applicable to software development? More explicit explanation is needed.
Comment by Jason Petersen — March 8, 2009 @ 7:30 am
As I see it, the lesson is that if you axiomatically distain something you are working on, then you will subtly work against it, and that’s going to hurt whatever you are building.
That’s not to say you should stop advocating changing to a better technology or methodology, just because you have to use what you are arguing against in the meantime.
Comment by Vincent Gable — March 9, 2009 @ 8:26 pm