"Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something."
"When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. 'That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3' can be shortened to '1 + 1 is 2, not 3."
I appreciate the feedback. I was not rebuking the HN community member who posted, but the author of the article he linked to. Refuting that original article would require a couple of thousand words. The missing perspective was that of the customer, which is essentially opposite from that of the vendor.
The budget is use-or-lose. The contracts with the major suppliers condition large "discounts" on spend increasing every year. The exact targets of the spend are either specified by the auditors or not specified at all. I have been in meetings where between ~50-100 managers and architects were told, we have to spend 15% more with ___ next year, here is their list of software SKUs, what is your Christmas list?
"When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. 'That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3' can be shortened to '1 + 1 is 2, not 3."
"Don't be snarky."
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html