Darren, I meant that you shouldn’t read the article that I linked to… The point of the article is to explain something called “granfalloon tactics”… It gets people to do all kinds of stuff based on their sense of community with others who share same common trait or idea. The author of the article admits the title of his article is itself an example of a granfalloon tactic. I thought it was interesting because it reminds me of all the programming language advocacy thrown around these days (which I’m just as guilty of participating in). It really reminds me of some comments thrown around months ago when Martin mentioned his observation that “Ruby people are nicer” (http://www.martinfowler.com/bliki/RubyPeople.html). That got alot of Python people riled up… Perhaps because intentionally or not, you could say Martin’s comment was a ‘granfallon tactic’ to support the Ruby people (us) vs the Python people (them). I see the same thing going on with lots of comments by David Hansson vs PHP and Java. Same thing with Paul Graham and his essays on goodness of being an outsider. If you can recognize what they’re saying as ‘granfallon tactics’, it’s easier to not get too excited or too upset by what they’re saying (depending on which side of the us/them fence you happen to be on).
Sudhindra are you saying that you believe Myers Briggs is a sham? It may or may not be a sham… but what the article I think is trying to say is that if you started a club for all ‘ENFP’s at ThoughtWorks, that just might be a granfalloon.
Read what?
Link | July 3rd, 2006 at 4:09 pm
Darren, I meant that you shouldn’t read the article that I linked to… The point of the article is to explain something called “granfalloon tactics”… It gets people to do all kinds of stuff based on their sense of community with others who share same common trait or idea. The author of the article admits the title of his article is itself an example of a granfalloon tactic. I thought it was interesting because it reminds me of all the programming language advocacy thrown around these days (which I’m just as guilty of participating in). It really reminds me of some comments thrown around months ago when Martin mentioned his observation that “Ruby people are nicer” (http://www.martinfowler.com/bliki/RubyPeople.html). That got alot of Python people riled up… Perhaps because intentionally or not, you could say Martin’s comment was a ‘granfallon tactic’ to support the Ruby people (us) vs the Python people (them). I see the same thing going on with lots of comments by David Hansson vs PHP and Java. Same thing with Paul Graham and his essays on goodness of being an outsider. If you can recognize what they’re saying as ‘granfallon tactics’, it’s easier to not get too excited or too upset by what they’re saying (depending on which side of the us/them fence you happen to be on).
Link | July 3rd, 2006 at 5:00 pm
So the Myers Briggs test is a psychology sham (or a marketing technique .. that shrinks use to control you)..
Link | July 5th, 2006 at 11:07 am
Sudhindra are you saying that you believe Myers Briggs is a sham? It may or may not be a sham… but what the article I think is trying to say is that if you started a club for all ‘ENFP’s at ThoughtWorks, that just might be a granfalloon.
Link | July 5th, 2006 at 2:27 pm