Re: Re: Overstepping Qualifications [was: Practice: Pair Programming, Sex, etc]

  (Women: go with me here for a minute, please. I need a very casual phrase
  meaning "just some person". In this little article, I'm using the phrase
  "just some guy" to mean that. I'm not excluding you. In this article,
  you're just some guy too. I apologize for the apparent insult and
  specifically exclude it from what I'm getting at here.)

William, I agree that Kent is "seen by many", and perhaps even I am "seen
by not so many" as having some kind of authority. That's something of which
I hope we are always mindful, but at the same time it's just not true.

Kent Beck is just some guy. Ron Jeffries is just some guy. They weren't
granted special authority by any divine agency, though they were both
blessed with a little talent, some great teachers, and some great learning
experiences, which pounded a couple of useful ideas into their heads.

They have spent a lot of time thinking about things, and a lot of time
honing their ability to express the things they value in ways that might
best help other people benefit from what they think.

Gandhi, the Queen, the Pope, the President, it doesn't matter. Just some
guy. Maybe a very thoughtful one, maybe a very wise one, but still just a
plain old working, thinking, fallible human like you and me. If people
think otherwise, they're mistaken.

Frankly I think the world would be a better place if we listened to
everyone with the same care and intensity that we listen to the most
"authoritative" person we know.

Ron Jeffries
www.XProgramming.com
Wisdom begins when we discover the difference between
"That makes no sense" and "I don't understand". --Mary Doria Russell

On Saturday, November 13, 2004, at 12:54:31 AM, William Pietri wrote:

> Hi, Ron! I don't wish to deny you your right to say whatever pleases
> you. And I certainly enjoy your posts, on topic and off. However, I am
> compelled to contradict you on something.

> On Fri, 2004-11-12 at 20:43 -0500, Ron Jeffries wrote:
>> I feel free to talk about whatever's on my mind. I don't speak for XP, [...]

> When you and Kent write in places like the Extreme Programming mailing
> lists and the Extreme Programming books, you are seen by many as
> speaking for XP, or at least authoritatively about it. I imagine that
> having ex cathedra powers is not something that you entirely enjoy, but
> I think you have them, especially for people outside the community.

> And I think that's why we're taking these paragraphs more seriously than
> we would if they were written by somebody else or somewhere else.
> Personally, having met and corresponded with you guys for years, I can
> generally separate the personal opinions from the official ones.
> (Although not always; I'm still wondering whether sexual harassment is a
> bigger problem on XP teams than others, as I inferred from this
> section.)

> Others, however, will read this as Kent Beck, the Father of Extreme
> Programming, saying in the One True XP Book that sexual attraction is a
> relatively serious problem when pairing, at least for heterosexuals. Now
> that may be accurate, and regardless, as you point out, it's Kent's book
> to write. But for those of us who work in the penumbra of his power,
> what he writes is of concern.

End quotation from William Pietri, on Saturday, November 13, 2004, at 12:54:31 
AM




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