I agree. Mostly. I think we need to remember he's talking about kernel specs. For those of us writing end-user applications, you can (and should!) get feedba

I agree. Mostly. I think we need to remember he's talking about kernel specs. For those of us writing end-user applications, you can (and should!) get feedback during the spec writing process. You write a draft of the spec (which should capture requirements, not include implementation details), put this in front of your users, get feedback, then lather, rinse, repeat. This process won't be perfect, but it gets you closer to reality. Of course, even that doesn't work for all situations. Some shops can be "agile" enough to quickly get new iterations out there based on feedback. And that can be nice. There are other industries that are very much requirements/documentation driven (see medial software and devices) and the spec does matter.