> I might be a bit cynical / neckbeard, but the tech industry tends to go in circles with good engineering principles sold as the newest fads / hype. Not cynic

> I might be a bit cynical / neckbeard, but the tech industry tends to go in circles with good engineering principles sold as the newest fads / hype. Not cynical at all — this is well observed and I wish more people saw it. I think software engineering is more susceptible (permissive cause) to fads because so much of the work is more craft than science and the actual catalyst (proximate cause) for the faddishness is the economic incentives driving the posturing for "thought leadership". Consultancies need to compensate for generally not having a long-term stake in the projects they work on in order to overcome skepticism from clients so they have to invest in content marketing via thought leadership. The principles of marketing don't change -- convince people they have a problem, sell them the solution. In a similar fashion every developer has various incentives to either consume and propagate or create this kind of content as well. The only check on faddishness is well-grounded technical leadership.