IT Filter
Along with the common acceptance of ‘lolspeak’ as a method of legitimate communication, IT websites are a scourge of the Internet.
I really enjoy reading their articles, I do. You can gauge an author’s technical competence by how well they describe the concepts they are covering, so I play a little game. I first read the article, taking note of all the areas they introduce then gloss over (exposing their lack of knowledge). For each occurrence, I tally a point on an invisible scrap of paper in my head. At the end, I read the author’s credentials. You’ll generally find that the number of points tallied equals the number of times ‘expert,’ ‘authority,’ and ’specialized’ appear in their biography, with any points left over being assigned to each of their degrees and certifications.
If I ever write for a website or paper, you know what my biography is going to say?
“Robert Peaslee is an author. If you have no idea how to verify whether everything he writes is made up, you probably shouldn’t be reading his articles.”
PS,
We need a firefox plugin to filter IT websites.
Much like a lot of business folks, many in the IT field see certifications and self-appointed titles as impressive though they mostly make themselves feel good. I hadn’t ever quantified such chest-thumping in the mentioned manner, but I suspect you are correct.
Dec 20th, 2007 at 1:52 pm