Managed World

I realized something when I woke up in the middle of the night before leaving Florida. There was one particular common quality (among many) between all my favorite sessions at Tech Ed that got me thinking. All my favorite sessions were talking about software issues that were independent of a given Microsoft technology. Meaning, in my favorite sessions, the technology used in the solution to the problem was merely an implementation detail. Of the sessions I didn’t like, a good number of them were sessions that were simply “hocking their warez” (“drinking the Microsoft kool-aid” if you will).

I’m a strong believer that the qualities that contribute the development of high quality software are qualities that trascend their implementation, qualities that are can be applied to numerous different technologies. It is in part due to this belief that I enjoy presentations that discuss these qualities. If you’re not a good developer now, there is no amount of technology that can be applied in order to make you a good one. Technology can’t make crap into a diamond. Perhaps technology can make crap into crap of a less pungent nature, but technology won’t eat swallow crap and spit out a diamond. Often times, it is garbage in, garbage out. I suppose that’s why I’m intrigued when people keep looking for technology that will make them develop better. Improving efficiency is one thing, but improving quality is a whole different ballgame.

I’m so interested in these abstract qualities that I get rather turned off when people start selling their products and explaining how the said product will fix everything we need fixed. Perhaps I’m just getting more skeptical the older I get, but I’ve seen way too much vaporware to seriously listen to marketing speak. I’m not saying that the presentations were all marketing speak. It’s just that I would much rather see content related to the world than watch an hour and a half firework show.