[Sigia-l] AIfIA Goals 2004 Survey Results

[Listera]

"david_fiorito at vanguard.com" wrote:

> Is it not possible to create a standard that reflects the kind of quality of
> critical thinking that you advocate?

Once again, I recognize two kinds of standards. I fervently support
format/exchange/common carrier type of standards. (There are pretty awful
but ubiquitous standards, I even support some of those.) My problem is with
standards above that at the tool/process level where some people presume to
tell others what to do/how to work. At the latter level, the only standard I
would advocate is the teaching of critical thinking.

> I have met many wildly creative individuals who work for companies that have
> an incredibly rigid bureaucracy.

I'm sure there are the inevitable anecdotal exceptions, but I find it
extremely hard to believe creative professionals would subject themselves to
incredibly rigid bureaucracies. Why would they do that?
 
> In a large company a lack of standards would lead to breakdowns, cost
> overruns, and in efficiency.

You are not telling me that large companies (that almost universally have
internal policies, best practices, standards, etc in place) are immune to
breakdowns, cost overruns, and inefficiency, are you?

> When you get a contract you need to be able to work within the environment of
> the corporation that holds your contract. For your work to have value it needs
> to be in a form that the corporation can consume.

Exactly. It is idiotic in the extreme to insist that a resume be submitted
in MS Word format when anyone can consume it as ascii text. It's coercive to
insist a sitemap or a wireframe be submitted as a Visio file when PDF can be
universally consumed. It's coercive to demand that a public web app be coded
in VB or .NET. Just because some pinhead decided that ought to be a
'standard.'

> Guidance does not assume ineptitude.

Yes it does. Those who can think for themselves don't need to be guided by
others.

> Does the guidance the law provides turn lawyers into unthinking sheep?

Laws, in general, don't provide guidance, they *tell* you, often in no
uncertain terms, what is to be done. What you are missing here is the fact
that we don't have *mandatory/coercive* rules/standards that tell lawyers
how to conduct their own cases. That would be the analogy here. Same law
(format-level standard), different tactics (process-level standard). If you
can't distinguish the difference here, I have nothing more to add to the
discussion.

Ziya
Nullius in Verba