RFCs, Standards and Delight!

Have you ever had a moment when you felt the presence of pure intelligence? A cleansing, uplifting presence in the midst of the muck of mediocrity? I do, when I read clear, concise and unambiguous sentences like what you can find in RFCs and standards specifications (like the one for WSDL, for instance). There are moments when I could whoop in joy at the sight of such lucidly written articles and standards that I feel I have been given a rare glimpse of what omniscience must feel like. It's only in these moments that my narcissistic self retreats and I acknowledge how far I am from reaching that pinnacle, if at all.

However, having said all that, this article had a sobering effect on me when I realised that the standards mentioned above were also written by a similar set of people: engineers. That obviously does not indict all engineers of having criminal intentions, it only reinforces the fact that everything can have a dark side to it.