A fact is like a sack…
Posted on November 23, 2007
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I’m reading a great a little book on “the myths of innovation” by scott berkun and came across this great quote by the prominent historian Edward Carr:
“It used to be said that facts speak for themselves. This is of course untrue. The facts speak only when the historian calls on them: it is he who decides to which facts to give the floor and in what order or context…a fact is like a sack – it won’t stand up till you’ve put something in it.”
Take a look at a couple of the following facts, and tell me just how much crap someone put in those sacks:
- With agile development, there is no need to document.
- Peanut butter and jelly tastes good (inconceivable).
- Software development is easy.
- Databases are slow, lets use the filesystem, it’s quicker (still with us this one).
- Testing is a optional extra if we have time (sigh, why are people still doing this).
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