Try reading some of his other articles on development management. You may find yourself acclimatizing to his style, which will make it much easier to extract value from his writing.

He has a lot of practical experience, and his writing has been fairly well received in the past, so I suggest it's worth taking an open mind to his stuff if you are interested in managing or leading development teams.

I don't think this is Rands' best work, to be honest. This piece bugged me too because it's almost entirely metaphorical description and has little to no actual analysis. He is a good writer, but this isn't his best work.

I've read a lot by him, but looking at it again I think it's fairly reasonable to say that this post is written with the assumption that you are up to date with at least some of the way Rands presents situations and conveys his message.

Over time the site has largely evolved into the first public pass of content that eventually becomes part of a book.

Personally, I'm a big fan of articles that don't assume every reader is a newcomer. It's a barrier for newcomers, but explaining all of his shorthand and previous content... well, it's arguably two books worth of stuff.

I found it hard somehow (English's not my first language), but "incomprehensible" seems an exageration. It's about three managemente styles. See msg's comment here for an executive summary.

This older article of his is, I believe, considered something of a "classic". Personally, I consider it worth the read.

Free Electron

http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2005/03/20/free_electr...