Keep on telling us, Andy!

Techies -- like everyone -- have values, and hierarchies of values.

Techies -- like almost everyone -- think their value hierarchy is more correct and more universal than it really is. And they have a really arrogant attitude when "the masses" don't agree.

I tell people that Quality is an N-dimensional space, where N is roughly the number of users. No given user is likely to share your exact value hierarchy, and so no given user will precisely agree how brilliant your favorite tech it.

But does that mean we're lost, and there's no way to measure value? Of course not. We can't predict it in the individual, but we can measure it in the aggregate, through the choices of large numbers of users. In other words, the market.

Some techies refuse to concede that. If the market disagrees with them, then the market is wrong. And if you're a techie buying tech, fine: buy the tech you know is superior. But if you're a techie selling tech... Well, telling people how stupid they are and how smart you are has never been a winning sales strategy.