Your last statement was perfect to the core. I’m sure Steve Wolfe, would have read this

Steve Wolfe, any comments ?

(Q) Why intelligent people make stupid mistakes?

(A) They make mistakes because they do not care enough to pay attention to the matter at hand and/or do not understand or care about the consequences following from their actions regarding the matter.

I must say that your personal attacks on me, my motives and my products do give an indication of how much you understand the difference as well.

Having said that I do appreciate the fact that you are willing to stand up for yourself and others. Too bad that the people you are standing up for do not feel the need to stand up for you.

I find it tragic that you seem not to understand the difference between attacking an argument, and attacking a person.

Yes, that is one of the many reasons why I found Evan’s response pathetic.

Actually, I do not consider this whole thing funny at all. You see, people who regularly read my blog and leave comments on it generally know where Evan, I and other commenters come from. None of our impressions of AutoCAD, Inventor or for that matter, any other Autodesk products is going to change due to these kinds of discussions.

But what is more important is that this blog (like all other blogs) is heavily spidered by search engines and most of the traffic (15,000 + page views a month) comes from unsuspecting people all around the world, in search of views, reviews or just general information about a product. These people are not aware of the underlying politics and history behind such discussions and create their impressions by reading the content from a high vantage point, without spending too much time on the details of what, how and why something was said.

Contrary to how Evan wishes to defend his comments, this is really not about each word, comma and exclamation mark and how they were strung together in his comments. A reader skimming through the post and comments will simply take the gist of what was said and move on.

It is one thing for bloggers/analysts/press to give their own opinion about the capabilities of a product. Readers know how to filter things out. But it is entirely a different thing to express an opinion and then use something said by an employee of the company (let alone a Senior Vice President) to back it up or give it credibility. The effect of doing such a thing is far more powerful. That’s why Buzz is distancing himself from Evan’s comments. Readers take note of such references.

And no, it is not ok to lob a grenade and hide in the bushes. Evan is known to stand up for things, be it his own words or issues that he thinks are important. I am not sure I can say the same about Steve Wolfe.

and this is how Evan explains it now
[I expressed an opinion that Buzz would like to win a big powertrain design deal. I did not say he told me this.]

Obviously, Evan thinks that we are all stupid to even consider accepting such a ridiculous explanation.

Also I found it odd that Evan does not even know which of Deelip’s products or custom solutions Boeing is using and where they are using it and yet passed judgment on their importance. Maybe Evan should develop some *important* products himself before commenting on the relative importance of those made by others, especially since people are actually paying good money to use them.

Actually I found Deelip’s ‘enemy of my enemy is my friend’ analogy quite funny. It looks like Steve quietly lobbed a grenade and ran away to hide in the bushes. Evan blindly charged out to cover for Steve and now finds himself take all the bullets. And instead of following Steve he is still standing his ground and fighting.

Evan should simply keep quiet like Steve and hope this blows over. By opening his mouth he is simply making things worse for himself.

I agree with Sean, if someone cannot stand by his words, then he has no business publishing them in the first place. I would include Randall Newton in this as well, the owner of the publication and editor who supposedly approved the article.

At least Evan is making an attempt to justify his words, however pathetic that attempt may be. But he should realize that his policy of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” can sometimes leave him with his head sticking out, as appears to be the situation in this case.

You should not have to “fight his fight”.

The title of Deelip’s post was “Are Autodesk’s Products Unimportant?” This is a straw man. It misrepresents what Steve said his article.

In any event, what I was initially trying to do was explain what I thought Steve was trying to communicate in one poorly worded sentence in a four page article.

Given how I’ve been attacked, are you surprised that no one else is willing to speak up? Are you surprised that Steve isn’t here himself?