The idea of mutual respect

Yesterday's Editor's Blog, Why Don't You Get a Job? kicked off some pretty heated responses, showing some very different perceptions of how to keep your Java career going. The crux of that blog was a report, one of several I've seen recently, saying that businesspeople want developers who are more than "just programmers", meaning they need to have business skills, project management skills, and (this is the controversial part), knowledge of the employer's field of business.

John Reynolds takes issue with some of these conclusions and assertions in his blog How to keep your programming job. He says the key to making the relationship work is respect:

It is not necessary that you choose a business specialization like "finacial" or "medical" or "media" to retain your employability. If you learn to treat your business owners with respect, they will be delighted to explain their business to you. You'll have to do your homework to learn their lingo, but if you make the effort to deal with them in their own terms, you will find that business Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are every bit as worthy of respect as you think you are.

What business people crave from programmers (and technical people in general) is respect.

He goes on to say that it's your responsibility, as a programmer, to understand the relationship between the business needs and what software can deliver:

Your business people will not grasp your excitement for the latest Java technology unless you can explain to them how that technology relates to their business. To really communicate, you'll need to learn their language and to express yourself in terms of their world view.

John and I may not be that far apart on this -- you've got to understand the business to some meaningful degree to make a case for how Java can help it. But what do you think? Please continue to comment on these blogs keep the conversation going.