In March 2013, I have published the following post, titled “Big Words: Why Is Software Industry Choking”, poking at IT industry’s constant need to overwhelm us with big words, big promises, and (at that time) “Big Data”.
Many readers have believed that I was simply a naysayer. The article generated several critical replied, most of which boiled down to stating that I was ignorant in that particular field. My response to them was: “I admit that I do not consider myself an expert on all things related to your technology and business. Nevertheless, one does not need to be an expert in everything to recognize value, or lack thereof.”
That was more than two years ago, and – unsurprisingly – the argument still stands solid.
Software industry is industry of promise and future. That is, of promises that something will get done in the future. If you listen to the words and search for actual meaning, you’ll find out that they’re hollow. Soap bubbles filled with hot air, empty but oh so colorful. Face it: Software industry is dirty and mean and everyone has to compromise. But to public we appear not quite so dissimilar from scientists, inventors, people who know how to break the barrier of light-speed and bring about the glorious shiny future just as a side-note while looking cool.
And the so-called leaders of software industry actively support and feed this myth in many ways. Probably the most dangerous of them all is the Way Of Buzz which is how I’d call it if I was to write an equivalent of the Book of Five Circles for software industry. The Way of Buzz relies on a basic fact of human nature: sharing new information for the purpose of appearing more knowledgeable than I really am.
The Way of Buzz uses buzzwords to convey ideas; buzzwords that are often comprised of seemingly illogical or meaningless phrases. Cloud Computing does not really count clouds, Service Oriented Architecture does not build houses suitable for practicing your tennis service, Dot-Net is not a fishing net made of polka-dot strings, and Big Data isn’t the popular Star Trek android built in larger-than-life scale. These are just a few examples of the nonsense that everyone seems to be happy to spread further if it means they would appear to know what they’re talking about. They don’t – but it doesn’t matter as long as it buzzes.
And therein lies the greatest trap that software industry had laid for itself: a complete misunderstanding of its own language. In an attempt to communicate a complex idea in very few words, the industry had taken to using buzzwords, and self-proclaimed leaders have adopted them as battle-cries. It works simply thus: the leader shouts a battle-cry, people applaud, everyone feels enlightened in the “I was there” way. But nobody is any wiser.
Anytime a new buzzword appears (read: is fabricated), leaders rush to pick it up and make it their new battle-cry. Fifteen years ago, they did it with the infamous Dot-Com phenomena. Ten years ago they’ve done the same with SOA bubble. Five years ago the battle-cry was Virtualization. And finally, for a few months now we’ve been hearing about Big Data.
My counter-cry is “Big Words!”, because they are. Very big words, usually capitalized in writing and generating a lot of attention and money while the bubble lasts. Each time the bubble goes poof, a new one has to be found so that the public forget that the last carrot-on-a-stick was rotten and instead keep their eyes on the new carrot. Because the leaders say this one is tasty and fresh and wonderful. Each time the new carrot has to look bigger and juicier and the buzzwords have to be bigger.
They’re turning out to be bigger than the industry can bear. They’re turning out to be so big that even big-mouthed leaders have difficulties speaking them. And when the carrot is too big, the donkey chokes.
Jan Maska, Big Words: Why Is Software Industry Choking
