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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!princeton!astrovax!fisher!eosp1!robison
From: robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: There isn't any "there" here
Message-ID: <1292@eosp1.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 14-Dec-84 10:02:33 EST
Article-I.D.: eosp1.1292
Posted: Fri Dec 14 10:02:33 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 15-Dec-84 02:00:52 EST
Reply-To: robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison)
Organization: Exxon Office Systems, Princeton
Lines: 47
Summary: 



I was really excited to discover that there was a net group
on Philosophy.  I subscribed to it, hoping to do some reading
about, well, philosophy, ethics, morality, etc.  But this group
has the weirdest collection of memos?!?!

Unlike net.general, which might be abolished because it has no
identity, this group MUST have an identity.

  - It's not the same as net.abortion, because the stuff copied to
    this group is much less rational than what appears in net.abortion.

  - It's not the same as net.flame, becuase the stuff in this group
    is much more childish than what appears in net.flame.

  - It's not net. politics, because, well, it's even sillier, and
    less informed, than what appears in net.politics.

Maybe it is net.misc.copytrash, since a great deal of what appears in
here is copied to other groups.

I'd like to start up a philosophical/ethics discussion.  I'm going to
apologize in advance that this issue is much less important than
those that usually grace this group.  On the other hand, maybe
someone has something to say about it.

The issue:

	- Given that, on the basis of almost universal experience,
	  your client should never believe the (probably optimistic)
	  software development schedules you announce, how should one
	  go about communicating accurate schedule information, on
	  those rare occasionas when one probably has accurate
	  information to communicate?

For starters, I've tried the obvious:

  - tell client when system will be ready.  Client doesn't believe,
  gets ready months later.

  - tell client optimistic schedule you know to be false.  Client
  draws obvious conclusions, comes to same real conclusion I have,
  but I can't know this for sure, and it doesn't feel ethical.

  - Toby Robison (not Robinson!)
  {allegra, decvax!ittvax, fisher, princeton}!eosp1!robison