Charlie
Really
I have never worried or feared what people think about what I say
Certainly I have no fear of it
If the moderator dosent like what I say he moderates it

"Is Steve trying to sell something here? Is this ethical? Who are you to call people idiots?"

Richard, three interesting questions. Let me take them in slightly different order, if I may:

Q3. "Who are you to call people idiots?"
I did a word search through the threads on Issues Discussion where I’d posted, and the only place where the word "idiot" showed up was the several times that Anoon referred to himself as such (jocularly, I’m sure, since, whatever his taste in weather, he doesn’t seem like an idiot!). For the record, in the 13 years that I have participated in Internet discussions on subjects ranging from cricket to palindromes, I don’t think that I have ever called anyone an idiot -- I think that is something each individual needs to learn for him/her/itself.

Q1. "Is Steve trying to sell something here?"
Absolutely! I’m trying to sell the idea that project planning and management is hugely important, misunderstood, neglected and almost always inadequately done. I’m selling that not only are vast sums of money being wasted through PM incompetence, but that hundreds of thousands of deaths, and untold pain and misery, are being caused each year through such incompetence in projects like pharmaceutical development, medical care IT, emergency response, terrorism detection systems, and criminal investigation. I’m selling that we, as a discipline, are most at fault, because in the 19 years I’ve been doing this, knowledge and use of such invaluable traditional techniques as WBS, CPM, resource scheduling/leveling, and earned value has IMO decreased substantially in use as a percentage of project implementations. And I’m selling that project management theory is far from a "solved" science -- it’s still in its infancy, and those of us who stand on the shoulders of the giants who developed CPM, etc., have an obligation to exchange, discuss, and sometimes debate ideas, develop new metrics and techniques, pass our knowledge on to a new generation, and generally make things better.

I’m also selling that PMs/planners need to step up to the plate and recognize that they are more than automatons marching to a "cost/schedule" cadence. Until we do so, by recognizing our responsibility to the project investment and investors to maximize the value/"profit" that the project produces, we will continue to be regarded as overhead, as a barely-necessary evil.

In support of these "sales goals", I have pointed people to resources on my web site, to articles that I have authored or co-authored, and to Webinars that I have done for various PMI Specific Interest Groups. I think the articles are all free; the Webinars usually have a fee for non-members of the particular SIG, but I don’t make a penny from them.

I have once or twice, when asked to explain something in greater depth, mentioned my book, which IMO is absurdly expensive. That’s my publisher’s unfortunate decision. But it took me a long time to write each of those 300+ pages, and I don’t always feel like re-writing ten or fifteen of them every time to try to answer a question that’s much more clearly explained in the book.

Q2. "Is this ethical?" I guess that’s for the administration of PP to decide. Pretty much everyone on this forum makes a living in some way or another from planning/project management. There are many consultants, academics, trainers, authors (I’m all four). Vladimir Liberzon works for Spider Project. I’ve absolutely never felt that he was inappropriately "selling" us something, but I do know that the PP community is much richer for his insights, knowledge and lucid participation. If this community feels that I am guilty, in the past or future, of some form of hucksterism, I’d ask them to so indicate.