This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Ruby Buzz by David Heinemeier Hansson. Original Post: Disrespecting the story teller as Ajax soars Feed Title: Loud Thinking Feed URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/LoudThinking Feed Description: All about the full-stack, web-framework Rails for Ruby and on putting it to good effect with Basecamp Latest Ruby Buzz Posts Latest Ruby Buzz Posts by David Heinemeier Hansson Latest Posts From Loud Thinking

As a world of programmers is still processing an incredible amount of gall and spite generated over the rise of Ajax as a term (and some as a technology), let me step back to salute Jesse James Garrett for coining the term.

I must admit that when I first heard it, I too twitched for a second in displeasure of a new cap for an old hat. But as my lizard brain retracted, I recognized the brilliance in timing and the benefits of explanation.

Jesse James told me, told us, a story about the rise of a new approach (or technique, if you're still pessimistic). He gave the web a reference point wrapped in a catchy term that has been fantastically beneficial at creating awareness.

That's valuable. That's an important contribution. Disrespecting the story teller for such an offering reflects a narrow, harmful view of progress on a grander scale. In the aim to lift the industry higher, the stories are as important as the technology. The stories carry good ideas from the mighty high to the mighty far.

The resentment around the term Ajax reminds me of the recurrent rejection I've observed in some programmers around design patterns (less so in recent years, though). An instant rejection that a story can be valuable on its own. That if you know the tech before it received a catchy label, you're entitled to the smug sense of superiority as you berate the illiterate commons of how you were there before it was cool.

I can't stand it. Great ideas are ripe for better packaging. Let's honor the bards of our time as they carry, improve, and spread messages of improvement farther and further. The irrational rejection of stories is the hallmark of a world view that treasures enlightment only among the few.