Kamp: A Generation Lost in the Bazaar

I suspect that detailed reply to this question is most likely to run this otherwise very interesting discussion in a less productive direction. (hint: search previous LWN comment sections which went two sigma in number)

Personally, i've always seen the cathedral versus the bazarr metaphor as ersatz for rules-based versus crisis (entropic) evolution. both are necessary, the latter to get out of local minima. ((must resist making scifi references to babylon-5 or dune..[grit]))

Perhaps we're just at a point where the pendulum of activity should swing back toward the rules-based "priest hood" (and Poul-Henning Kamp is a voice in the wilderness...)? That is, progress is not ever going to be monotonic.