The Time/Money Quandry
August 27th, 2007 by Christopher HarrisBoolean operators like AND, OR, and NOT can be very useful when you are trying to expand or narrow a search query. Those three little words can be a bit trickier when used in other conversations, however. Take for instance, my continuing discussion with some vendors who just don’t seem to understand my use of the word “or” in our conversation. The problem most likely stems from the fact that this deceptively simple word has two very different meanings. There is the “or” that only allows one selection from a list of possibilities, and then there is the tricky Boolean “OR” that welcomes any and all possible responses.
Vendors, let me clarify that when I say I will spend either time or money, I do not mean this in the Boolean sense. I embrace open source software for many reasons, but certainly acknowledge that even software that is free in the sense of being without monetary cost often incurs high costs in time, and time is money. TANSTAAFL, as Heinlein would say. If, on the other hand, I pay money for software then I expect it to work without an overly large commitment of additional time.
Why do so many vendors think that libraries will be willing to expend both time and money to make their product work? Maybe because we haven’t reminded them of the non-Boolean connotation of the “time or money” equation.