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libertangoSome of you may well have heard of the concept of FUD -- Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. It's a term that's come out of computer business culture -- your competition announces a product, so you announce a vaporware product that matches it (with tint control!); you disparage the general quality of their code; you hint at deep dark secrets about who their venture capital is really coming from; etc.
Well, I've decided there needs to be a term for something like FUD, but with a positive spin. Something like Dr. Pangloss. Where you invent an imaginary superiority for your point-of-view (computer-ish or not), and then keep repeating that superiority as if it's, well... real.
So, my friends, I introduce you to: HAC. Hype, Arrogance, and Certainty.
Dick Cheney promoting the idea the Iraqis would welcome us with celebrations in the streets -- that was HAC.
Any sentence that ends, "...or, you could just install X," -- regardless of what X might be -- is HAC.
In a sense, you could say the Internet bubble was a macro example of HAC that got its eventual comeuppance.
And, yes, one could say the word "hubris" applies just as easily... But that ain't a TLA, now, is it?
Well, I've decided there needs to be a term for something like FUD, but with a positive spin. Something like Dr. Pangloss. Where you invent an imaginary superiority for your point-of-view (computer-ish or not), and then keep repeating that superiority as if it's, well... real.
So, my friends, I introduce you to: HAC. Hype, Arrogance, and Certainty.
Dick Cheney promoting the idea the Iraqis would welcome us with celebrations in the streets -- that was HAC.
Any sentence that ends, "...or, you could just install X," -- regardless of what X might be -- is HAC.
In a sense, you could say the Internet bubble was a macro example of HAC that got its eventual comeuppance.
And, yes, one could say the word "hubris" applies just as easily... But that ain't a TLA, now, is it?
