Enterprise IT & Quack Medicine

I had a disturbing conversation with an IT exec of a very large corporation:

"Do you offer training in architecture?"

I paused, not sure what she meant, as architecture is an incredibly broad topic. "What specifically about architecture?"

"Architecture.", she just repeated, and looked at me like I was a little slow.

I tried giving her some guiding examples, while hoping not to offend, "What particular aspects of architecture? Design patterns? Layers? Protocols? Performance optimization?"

"Well!" she seemed irritated, "if you don't teach architecture then never mind!" and she ended the meeting there.

This shows what's wrong with most corporate IT execs - they always think their problems have quick and simple solutions - some two-day class that their people can attend, or some product sold by a big multinational vendor. They don't seem to want to accept that their problems need to be studied carefully by someone with decades of experience and study, and the solutions will take a lot of time to execute. So instead, they go with the vendors offering buzzwords and silver bullets, and soon they're buried in complexity by layers and layers of "quick fixes".

They're like someone with some neck pain, he sees both an orthopedic doctor and a chiropractor (i.e. a quack). The orthopedic doctor says he'll need to run some tests and do some observation, and then prescribe the right therapy and lifestyle changes the patient needs to do. On the other hand, the chiropractor says it's just some pinched subfluxions that some basic spinal manipulations will fix! The patient goes with the chiropractor because he promises the quick and "sure" solution.

Some time later, the patient's problems are even worse! It's not just some neck pain but many other problems - some caused by ignoring the original symptoms, and some caused by the quack treatments themselves! And, the patient is now completely dependent on visit after visit to the chiropractor, which is making the chiropractor rich!