Microsoft & Doublethink

The edition of George Orwell’s 1984 that I bought (for $1 at Half Price Books) included a preface by Walter Cronkite and an afterword by Erich Frömm. In Frömm’s text he discusses how the book is not just an indictment of Stalinism, as the book is often interpreted, as reasonable as that may be as it was written in 1946. It is also a warning about totalitarianism and the trappings thereof that can come out in any society. He continues by a discussion of the concept of doublethink, i.e. the ability to hold two contradictory ideas in mind and yet believe them both. An example of doublethink that he uses as it pertains to Western society is how a person working at a corporation will fervently believe that their company’s products are the best right up until the day they change jobs to work at a competing corporation, when the new employer’s products are suddenly the best. Recalling that you once were a cheerleader for Company A, yet still acting as a cheerleader for Company B, is classic doublethink. Even without the job change, being able to read and acknowledge criticisms and unfavorable comparisons of your current company’s products to your competitor’s, yet continue to proclaim your own products as the best is still doublethink.

At Microsoft, there are people that look at our products and see where they are weak, broken, or inferior, yet work hard to make them better. There are others that profess Microsoft products as the best no matter what they are shown. I am not only in the first group, but find myself drawn more to others in the first group and repelled by those in the second.
It’s particularly fascinating how the blind praise of Microsoft products by some employees is sometimes expressed in the exact terms used by Party members in 1984. For example, when I pull out my Treo 600, a Palm-based mobile device, there are those that are not only surprised, but say things like, “Is that a Palm? You traitor!” It’s telling that most of my closest friends also use Palm devices, but continue to watch progress both by Microsoft and the competition and are prepared to use what’s best, rather than stick with blind loyalty to the corporate brand.