People writing about culture in and around software development are like movies "based on a true story". That is to say: might as well be pure fiction. It att

People writing about culture in and around software development are like movies "based on a true story". That is to say: might as well be pure fiction. It attaches reason and meaning to actions for the purpose of presenting a compelling drama, not for accurate portrayal. It extrapolates from tiny sample sizes and makes blanket statements. There were radically different development subcultures across two buildings set 500 ft away from eachother within one company I worked at. And this washes away the very obvious subcultures based on geography, business domain, tools used by a team, and how much time you spend on Twitter. It elides parts of culture that aren't easy to write about. Of which there are many flavors: social truths that we understand deeply but do not speak about in polite company, or conflict with the authors thesis, or innocent facts that also happen to carry weight for unfavorable political opinions. But the end result masquerades as something more meaningful than a nice piece of fiction and creates a feedback loop. Participants in the culture can strongly disagree with the description, and still go on to adjust their behavior expecting that they might encounter it at their next job, their next client, or maybe even with their next hire. And it sets a frame of reference for the next commentator, who will be starting farther from the truth.