As we are all technologists, this is a hard thesis to contemplate. But I've been thinking about the idea that technology might be evolving too fast for even technologists to keep up.
A case in point: I've been following a MEAP (access to chapters of a book before it is published, great idea IMHO) on the Play Framework. I came across this post:
The authors, presumably experts on the Play Framework, got blinded and a part of the book became somewhat obsolete before it was even published! This is not a criticism of the authors at all. Frankly, I am excited to buy a copy of their physical book when it comes out in January. My point is that when projects (not this book but actual development projects) make technology decisions using the shiny new thing, they need to have a tacit path as to what to do when the hot thing goes out of style and becomes unsupported. I've seen this happen many times in my career and the pace of obsolescence seems to be getting faster.
A case in point: I've been following a MEAP (access to chapters of a book before it is published, great idea IMHO) on the Play Framework. I came across this post:
http://www.manning-sandbox.com/thread.jspa?threadID=61845&tstart=0
The authors, presumably experts on the Play Framework, got blinded and a part of the book became somewhat obsolete before it was even published! This is not a criticism of the authors at all. Frankly, I am excited to buy a copy of their physical book when it comes out in January. My point is that when projects (not this book but actual development projects) make technology decisions using the shiny new thing, they need to have a tacit path as to what to do when the hot thing goes out of style and becomes unsupported. I've seen this happen many times in my career and the pace of obsolescence seems to be getting faster.