---
title: Read Kurt Kagle
date: 2005-12-08T18:57:46Z
modified: 2005-12-08T18:57:46Z
permalink: "https://redmonk.com/jgovernor/read-kurt-kagle/"
type: post
status: publish
excerpt: ""
wpid: 416
categories:
  - Uncategorized
timestamp: 2005-12-08T18:57:46Z
tags:
  - Uncategorized
---

Last week someone suggested I cut the politics out of monkchips if I want to build a community, especially with “naturally conservative” folks like we find in corporate America.



I am not great at self-censorship though, and I tend to believe it plays into the hands of those that would prefer to see us not debate issues of great importance. Self-censorship discourages transparency, becasue transparency is a two way process. 



Am I at least allowed to point at someone else’s screed?: [Pseudo-blogs, (un)intelligent design and Astroturf](http://www.understandingxml.com/archives/2005/12/on_pseudoblogs.html).



Oh yeah – don’t read [Kurt Kagle](http://www.understandingxml.com/) if thinking that falls outside “naturally conservative” makes you feel angry, because you will just end with up higher blood pressure. 



Unlike Kurt, I have no more faith in developers’ understanding of truth than anyone else’s. Programmers in my experience are great at symbolic logic but they are just as likely to be found dancing around a totem pole chanting in the dark as anyone else. Certainly i would be terrified of a government run by and for developers… didn’t you know binary thinking can be dangerous?



All in all though I enjoyed reading his arguments, and the way they tie a lot of different ideas and trends together. But if you prefer technical and industry analysis without any blood pressure inducers I would recommend his [XML 2005](http://www.understandingxml.com/archives/2005/11/xforms_and_blog.html#more) coverage from last month, which benefits from his contextual style.