[microformats-discuss] Re: Educationg Others

[Luke Arno]

On 10/5/05, Dr. Ernie Prabhakar <drernie at opendarwin.org> wrote:
> Hi Danny,
>
> On Oct 5, 2005, at 2:53 AM, Danny Ayers wrote:
> > So although the slogans may be helpful for adoption, I'd suggest
> > caution in assuming that things will work in the general case,
> > whatever success there has been with specific cases.
>
> A very valid point.  However, I'm not sure we really understand the
> "general case" well enough to even answer that question.
>
> After all, in a certain sense URLs don't work in the "general case"
> -- but that's why they actually work in real life.
>
>  From my perspective, the real lesson is to always be aware of second-
> order legacy effects, and keep track of your boundary assumptions.
> That seems the best we can humanly do without, as they say, "trying
> to boil the ocean." :-)
>

Absolutely.

We should eschew the "general case." Solve specific problems and allow
solutions to converge naturally into something more - then standardize.
Evolution is messy but it is smarter than our smartest plans.

- Luke