Sometimes, you hear a guy who talks about something that he doesn’t understand at all, but… he uses the right buzzwords and so, he is listened carefuly: Web2.0, OpenSource, Agile, Cloud Computing, SaaS… How many times have you met someone who says he’s agile but his methodologies didn’t change from the previous ones (and he probably doesn’t know what Scrum and XP are).
Credit: www.dilbert.com
This kind of situation horrifies me but my behavior doesn’t seem appropriate: I don’t say anything because I’m convinced that other persons think the same as me. And, after the meetings, I listen to people who don’t know the domain and I realize that they trust what this fake guy said.
It’s the buzzword effect: last week, it was with “Open Source”. A short summary: The bad guy was saying that Open Source is nice because developers, who are not working for the company, will develop for us for free and we’ll get the exclusivity to sell the final product. This stupid idea was so big, that I couldn’t say anything. But, since Open Source is a mysterious effect for most of the companies, some thought that it was possible…
What is your reaction when you hear so big stupidity?
Comments 2
I’ve never done it myself, but I think a good response would be to pretend to be ignorant of the concept/buzzword, and ask them to explain it. Of course, they might be upset at you once they realise that they don’t have an anwer.
Posted 06 Jun 2009 at 3:36 pm ¶Thank you Luis Miranda for your comment. I think it can be a right approach: I’ll try next time
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Posted 07 Jun 2009 at 7:43 pm ¶Post a Comment