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Public Class GeoffAppleby

Inherits Microsoft.VisualBasic.MVP : Implements IBrainFart
The Death of Mort

Scott Bellware made a post recently entitled 'Mort or Elvis? A Question for a Bygone Era'. So far in response, I've seen a few people raving about what he had to say, and how right on the money he is.

And yes, if you distill his post down to things that are only talked about that have direct relevance to the title, then sure, he's spot on indeed! Way to go Scott.

But I'd like to this opportunity just to rant (well, mini rant). This is my soap box, so I bloody well will use it! :)

Mini rant #1. People are clapping him on the back and cheering him on and saying how it's the post written by anyone this year.

Come off it.

Everyone knows that the whole Mort/Elvis/Einstein thing is a joke. You really haven't said anything new. Sure, maybe we need to keep reminding people, but there was new in his post.

Mini rant #2. How the F*** can you turn every post you write, no matter what it is, into a sermon about agile? Between Scott and Jeffrey and Sam, I'm getting very sick of it.

You're worse than the Mormons who keep coming to my door preaching about finding the lord. They can't convince me either.

Why does it have to turn into a sermon? In his post, we have this:

Being an agile practitioner in the Microsoft community at this time must be a little bit like being Galileo during his inquisition. You can present all the testimony you want, but in the end, the Holy See is really only interested in maintaining the comfort of the status quo and ...

But my problem is that while he's saying that he's presenting all this testimony, I'm still NOT seeing any how's or why's. All I see is 'you really should, things will go so much better for you.' There's almost never a 'this is what we did, and this how much time it saved us, and this is _how_ we did it'. It's almost always 'This is what we did, and you're a fool if you don't too'.

And for all the chance that Scott had in writing a post that made me nod and agree with him (and he had plenty of opportunity), he lost me.

Stop fricking sermonizing. If that sort of stuff when done by religious people can't get me to believe in god, how the hell do you think it will work to get me to believe in agile, something I have even less faith in?

Thankyou. Rant over :)

Posted: Tuesday, April 25, 2006 8:55 PM by Geoff Appleby
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Comments

Tim Weaver said:

I had to LOL when I read your post. My first thought after reading Scott's was that it was over the top harsh when talking about MS tools and processes, but the Mort, Elvis discussion was on target. It's too bad he took such a antagonistic tone because I think it detracts from the message. It seems that Scott is getting rather bitter. I have been playing around with the idea of writing a book - Living Life as a Coder and Enjoying It or something like that. Scott's post (or at least the attitude expressed in it) fit right in with one of the chapters... Bitterness. Too many times I've watched bitterness turn to burnout and the person simply leaves the industry, but that is another post.

I also agree with your take on the TDD message. From a person who practices and preaches TDD I find that I struggle to put anything meaningful out there because it seems like it has already been done. Then, when I read your take on it, I realize that I, probably like most TDD pushers, are too close. We take too much for granted instead of laying out valid arguments (with facts) we just sermonize (of course that is easier to do).

# April 26, 2006 4:06 AM

Anonymous said:

You are truly a fucking idiot.
# May 5, 2006 6:44 PM

Anonymous said:

Why don't you grow up, get off your fat ass and learn like the rest of the world do instead of having everything handled to you and your constant bitching?
# May 6, 2006 3:31 PM

Sahil Malik said:

The two anonymous comments are .. as I said .. posted in "Pairs" by Fr-Agile programmers.

When will they learn :-/
# May 8, 2006 10:35 AM
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