David Lee Todd, Unknown Product Manager



	David Lee Todd, Unknown Product Manager People who love sausages and software should never watch either being made

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Friday May 19, 2006

The Sons and Daughters of Martha

Now that I'm on my way home from Horizons and JavaOne, I think my overall impression of both comes down to a strong feeling that the world runs on professional pride. I heard a lot of breakout sessions, and in each one the pride that the presenters took in their projects was evident. Some worked for companies, some worked for nonprofits, some worked for governments. They all had used Sun products to build systems that bettered the lives of thousands of people. I'm sure they were all well paid, but nobody was getting rich. It wasn't three days of free meals that brought them to San Francisco, I think, but the opportunity to tell their peers about what they had built.

Some of you may know Rudyard Kipling's poem, "The Sons of Martha," which celebrates the spirit of the engineer, toiling unsung so that an unknowing public can live in convenience and comfort. It's based on a Biblical passage, and I think two of my favorite lines are these, that could have served as a theme for the conference:

“It is their care in all the ages to take the buffet and cushion the shock.
It is their care that the gear engages; it is their care that the switches lock.”

Posted by davidleetodd ( May 19 2006, 12:12:22 AM PDT ) Permalink