There's a significant extent to which we live entirely in worlds of our own imagining, unable to perceive objective reality. You can't perceive your girlfriend, only your understanding of your girlfriend.
But objective reality does actually matter, and that's what eventually sunk Theranos. Similarly, if your girlfriend is objectively planning to empty your bank account and run off with her other boyfriend, that objective reality will eventually impose itself on your understanding, perhaps some time after she executes her plans. (Unless her own understanding of the situation changes in a way that makes her reconsider her plans.) Your "products that last"? You'll change the story you're telling yourself if they fall apart in your hand enough times.
And that's why we're using TCP/IP and not IBM SNA or DECNet or Tymnet or Minitel or even OSI to have this conversation; TCP/IP objectively worked better, even though IBM and CCITT had better stories.
But I'm not saying that stories don't matter. That's not what I'm saying, man. I'm saying that reality also matters.
But objective reality does actually matter, and that's what eventually sunk Theranos. Similarly, if your girlfriend is objectively planning to empty your bank account and run off with her other boyfriend, that objective reality will eventually impose itself on your understanding, perhaps some time after she executes her plans. (Unless her own understanding of the situation changes in a way that makes her reconsider her plans.) Your "products that last"? You'll change the story you're telling yourself if they fall apart in your hand enough times.
And that's why we're using TCP/IP and not IBM SNA or DECNet or Tymnet or Minitel or even OSI to have this conversation; TCP/IP objectively worked better, even though IBM and CCITT had better stories.
But I'm not saying that stories don't matter. That's not what I'm saying, man. I'm saying that reality also matters.