Form follows function. Architecture and technology follow form

Joel on Software - Don't Let Architecture Astronauts Scare You: "Your typical architecture astronaut will take a fact like 'Napster is a peer-to-peer service for downloading music' and ignore everything but the architecture, thinking it's interesting because it's peer to peer, completely missing the point that it's interesting because you can type the name of a song and listen to it right away.

All they'll talk about is peer-to-peer this, that, and the other thing. Suddenly you have peer-to-peer conferences, peer-to-peer venture capital funds, and even peer-to-peer backlash with the imbecile business journalists dripping with glee as they copy each other's stories: 'Peer To Peer: Dead!'

The Architecture Astronauts will say things like: 'Can you imagine a program like Napster where you can download anything, not just songs?'"