Andy Farnell on Eating Your Own Dog Food
OVER AT Cyber Show (C|S), less than 4 hours ago Dr. Andy Farnell published this fine article that focuses on security but goes beyond that (in terms of scope).
To quote a portion:
As I wrote in Digital Vegan, as with technology, you are what you eat. Best to choose good wholesome information because it shapes what you become. Eating our own food is a healthy way to live, nourished from our own kitchen and allotment garden. Self-Sufficiency and self-care remain a very strong culture around the world.When we are invested in something, understand it, and advocate for it, that changes our motivation structure. We are not "alienated" from what we love. Daniel Pink wrote an interesting book called "Drive" that explores this fundamental difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motives. It is highly relevant in computer security:
- good security cannot be imposed.
- security is distinct from protection.
- so security is more an attribute of the operator than the system.
In the "Industrialised West" we struggle to get the balance right between inter-dependency and autonomy. From the premise that industrialised society is very complex we wrongly conclude that self-determination is therefore impossible. We become enmeshed in co-dependent commercial relations. In this regard digital technology is a disaster area. We know far too little about our devices and rely too much on strangers and opaque systems.
It's hard work cooking delicious, healthy, things for ourselves, so we have bright eyes, shiny coats and a wet nose and waggy tail, so why not just buy it from the supermarket?
There's now an RSS feed for that blog. █