[ryanmaynard]

> I am frustrated by the industry as a whole. I feel industry is simply following marketing trends.

My work lands me in a number of different conferences in non-software industries. This is true for all industries. Its just that ours has a faster revolving door. That, in addition to a low barrier to entry (anyone can claim they're a web developer), leads to a higher degree of this madness. Its just part of human behavior to seek out, and parrot, social signals that let others know you, too, are an insider.

Personally, I have to avoid a great number of those gatherings, since the lot of them are just a circlejerk of low-density information. If I pay too much attention to those events, I catch myself looking down my nose, and since that isn't productive/healthy behavior, I avoid landing myself in a place where guys with buddy-holly glasses and <obscure-craft-beer> argue which Wordpress plugin is the best.

[discordianfish]

Another way to signal others that you, too, are an insider is by calling a current trend a hype.

[ryanmaynard]

To make a clarification, I was not calling Docker hype, nor specifically remarking on any particular item. I use docker religiously. I even use dokku for about 30+ toy projects.

My remark was to highlight that buzzwords are often used for "me-too" ankle-deep conversations/articles. Whether someone calls it Devops, or Systems Engineering, makes no difference to me. However, I favor pragmatic conversations about the topic, rather than buzzword bingo.

Examples include: "MongoDB sucks.", "Everyone should use Docker", and "What? You mean you're not using Kubernetes for your CRUD app?"

Basically, blanket statements that accomplish nothing more than to send social signals.

[coldtea]

From 20+ years of experience and having seen tons of trends just die, most are just that, hype.

[pyre]

But calling everything that's new "hype" and pointing to the past as the only things that are "real" or "solid" is also a form of groupthink.

[coldtea]

Yeah, but I think it's the inverse kind of groupthink than what the industry suffers from.

So it's healthy to embrace it as counter-balance to the constant hype.

(Besides, whether something is "real" or "solid" I think can mostly be answered in hindsight -- when it's mature enough and tested enough. In which case calling only things in the past solid is prudent).

[ryanmaynard]

I agree, and am guilty as charged.