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> It's a few honest people screaming to be heard above the din of snake-oil salesmen... I think it more likely that it's a few honest, knowledgeable people scr

> It's a few honest people screaming to be heard above the din of snake-oil salesmen... I think it more likely that it's a few honest, knowledgeable people screaming to be heard above many honest, well-intentioned, but misguided people screaming to be heard above the din of snake oil salesmen. It's much easier to believe the wrong thing and sell it yourself than it is to be a confidence man. And on the same note, it's much easier to crucify a malicious hacker than it is to ruin the life of a guy who supports his wife and kids who just happened to make the economic call that running everything as root was okay. To your point on economics, I think the old joke about two guys being chased by a bear applies to the economic mindset. One company is seen tying its shoes (for the sake of the metaphor let's add to the joke that he's otherwise naked), and the other company says slyly "I don't think you're going to outrun that bear." "We don't have to," replies the naked company, "we just have to outrun you." It's going to be hard to justify the extra 80% effort on the remaining 20% when management and sales only want to go 21% just so they can outlast their competitors.

0xdeadbeefbabe 10y ago
> And on the same note, it's much easier to crucify a malicious hacker than it is to ruin the life of a guy who supports his wife and kids who just happened to make the economic call that running everything as root was okay. Makes me wonder who makes the snake oil for the salesmen. I'm trying to say this is a plausible caricature that distracts us from a more complex (and way more interesting) reality.
- freehunter 10y ago
  Well in many cases, the product itself is not snake oil, it's just not as good as it's being sold. I work at a vendor and the product I work with has some unhappy customers who were over-sold and promised the moon when we're actually just a telescope. Being able to see the moon is great, but when it's priced like a moon landing and sold like 40 acres of prime lunar real estate, your telescope looks a little lackluster. And your boss just spent $3m on it, they don't want to hear "now we need to buy all these add-ons, plus we still need a couple more tools to shore up the defenses. The developers (not me) are just writing the best product they can. The sales guys are trying to get sales. The pricing guys are trying to make it profitable. And no one is talking to anyone else, so the developers don't know what features sales is claiming, sales doesn't know the developers roadmap, and pricing... I don't even know who sets the price.

0xdeadbeefbabe 10y ago

> And on the same note, it's much easier to crucify a malicious hacker than it is to ruin the life of a guy who supports his wife and kids who just happened to make the economic call that running everything as root was okay. Makes me wonder who makes the snake oil for the salesmen. I'm trying to say this is a plausible caricature that distracts us from a more complex (and way more interesting) reality.

freehunter 10y ago
Well in many cases, the product itself is not snake oil, it's just not as good as it's being sold. I work at a vendor and the product I work with has some unhappy customers who were over-sold and promised the moon when we're actually just a telescope. Being able to see the moon is great, but when it's priced like a moon landing and sold like 40 acres of prime lunar real estate, your telescope looks a little lackluster. And your boss just spent $3m on it, they don't want to hear "now we need to buy all these add-ons, plus we still need a couple more tools to shore up the defenses. The developers (not me) are just writing the best product they can. The sales guys are trying to get sales. The pricing guys are trying to make it profitable. And no one is talking to anyone else, so the developers don't know what features sales is claiming, sales doesn't know the developers roadmap, and pricing... I don't even know who sets the price.