Monday, June 09, 2008

Took Him to School on the Question of Conflict of Interest

Bruce Barry highlights Richard Lawson's utter confusion of the concept of conflict of interest, effectively slicing and dicing the flaws in the latter's logic at PiTW. Heard of the "Bass-o-matic"? Let's just call Bruce's post the "Chatter-Class-o-matic". It is easy to give a wink and a nod to developers (and their government-based spouses) on conflict of interest when one fails to grasp and to apply the concept.

And what does Dr. Barry get for his trouble? An ad hominem against his profession as a professor. It is really tough to understand the merits of basic critical thinking about conflicts of personal interest when one is busy making excuses for the self-interested (just look at Mr. Lawson's continued defense of developers in the comment section of today's "Chatter Class") and taking flagrant aim at their critics.

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