Hi Gunther. Thanks for the insights. These are powerful points, and I appreciate you taking the time to share them with me. I suspect, however, that you may be reading this passage out of context. My argument in this post strictly concerns the cultural origins of method, namely the startup triad of agile development, lean method, and design thinking. I am asking how these three approaches, so similar in core respects, made such a powerful entry in the aughts, dominating centre stage in entrepreneurial and business innovation thinking in the space of a decade.

My hypothesis is that these approaches must be seen as an evolved form of hacker culture. The ‘open source revolution’ plays the role of cultural accelerator in this genealogy, validating the efficacy of a version of the hacker way, and pushing hacker mindsets and norms into the mainstream. My understanding of these developments is influenced by Raymond’s account of hacker culture in his online posts and The Cathedral and the Bazaar.

I accept that I may have overcooked my argument with talk of ‘hacker generation companies’ in the cited passage. I hope my argument has not been undone by this rhetorical flourish. Again, I am simply interested in the inheritance of method. I don’t see that the links these companies have to the government impacts on this matter to any significant extent.

Thanks for the feedback, Gunther. It’s always rewarding to chat with you.