An excellent post by Jon Husband. My thoughts on listservs and the blogosphere seem to have shifted him into a reflective mode. He has also recalled what was a prophetic post he made five years ago. All good reading, but I particularly liked this paragraph:

I believe that there are few deep friendships which do not go through periods of testing and friction ... and it's important to note as well that friendships, especially professional ones, aren't always about blind support, loyalty and being nice, but as often are about honesty, directness, usefulness, pertinence ... but they all follow similar dynamics on the way to deep trust. It is in the way these tests are approached and resolved (or not) that define and deepen the friendship, helping to create solid bonds that enable even deeper trust and exploration, and yield richer fruits.

Bland consensus, neither criticising or criticising, seeing all ideas as equally valid may lead to a quiet live but neither builds friendship not does it create learning. The post is much more than this however, there is some good thinking on knowledge management and its limitations. Strongly recommended