I've always considered pragmatic to be a positive word. The way I see it, it's the opposite to dogmatism. You don't follow rules or principles just for the sake of it. You make your choices based on what's practical, not based on theories.

And I'm not alone to think that it's a positive word. After all, two of the greatest developers the world has seen base their whole career on the greatness of being pragmatic.

So therefore I strive to be pragmatic, and I often brag about how pragmatic I am.

But...

Then I see so many bad decissions being made in the name of pragmatism. Or what some people consider being pragmatic. The word is so commonly misused that I'm actually thinking about stopping using the word when I describe my values.

I have plenty of examples of this misuse, and I will blog about some of them. Here's the result so far: