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Hi Bill,
> > You don't like how programmers talk, you don't like the fact that
> > they refer to people who USE their software as users, you don't
> > like the way they dress and accuse them of disdain because of it,
> > you accuse them of being dirty. You damn programmers as a class,
> > painting with a broad brush indeed.
>
> I wasn't making judgements. I was recounting experiences, some my
> own, some told to me by others, about the kinds of experiences that
> caused friction / culture class between IT groups and business-side
> groups back in the '80's
I think I see part of the trouble. Take a look at this paragraph you
wrote, and see if you can pick out who is doing the perceiving, and
who is feeling disdain:
> I've found the pervasive use of the word "user" to be one source of
> that perception. The term has mostly negative connotations in our
> society since it's often short-hand for "abuser" as in "drug user."
> Another source of the perception comes from the experience of having
> a programmer come in, spend too little time with a domain expert to
> make them feel comfortable that the programmer really understands
> their job and how a piece of software can help them. Then not come
> back until the software was "done" and it wasn't what the business
> person really needed. Another source of the perception of disdain
> derives from the dress / hygiene "code" which says to the business
> person like "I'm more important than you. You can tell because you
> have to dress nice and I can wear jeans and not wash my hair."
You mention very few people in this paragraph, and those few people
are generally acted upon rather than taking action. "Disdain" and
"perception" and "connotation" are floating around in the paragraph,
without anyone disdaining or perceiving or connoting.
Perhaps if you can be clearer about who disdained, perceived, or
connoted, Ron (and possibly other people) would be less likely to
attribute those actions to you.
Here's something I do to strengthen my writing. For each action in
the paragraph, ask yourself who is doing the action. Then put that
person into the sentence, and show the person taking the action.
Notice that some nouns are verbs in disguise. "Perception," for
example, is a nounified form of "perceive." Change these nouns to
verbs that show action, and put someone into the sentence to do the
action.
In other words, tell me a story.
Dale
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