I never believed in JavaScript. I was always finding it awkward, unfriendly and limited. There were times when majority of people were disabling JavaScript in their browsers as it was considered one of the easiest security breach points available. I was totally sure I can recognize the trend and predict the future of JavaScript (and HTML as well) - it was too limited, bad designed (IMHO) and clearly it was not possible to abandon backward compatibility in future versions. That’s why I was delighted with new web technology approaches like Adobe Flash (well, to be honest my enthusiasm for Flash was a bit limited), Silverlight or WPF in browser. Obviously, I was more than sure that this is where the future lies within.
And then, Web 2.0 came. GMail, Google Maps and millions of other Ajax-enabled web applications. People started to create high-tech JavaScript frameworks like jQuery. There are tons of applications (like http://www.trello.com) with web UIs at least as ergonomic and usable as thick client ones. HTML5 came and impossible has happened - Microsoft has admitted that Silverlight may not be web’s silver bullet. Famous Windows 8’s Metro UI can utilize HTML5 as well. Few days ago I’ve found a JavaScript library named Kendo UI (http://www.kendoui.com) that impressed me that much (try the demos on its page) I had to do this kind of public confession :)
So, why do I write all that right now and here? Just to point out that even if you consider yourself experienced architect, it doesn’t hurt to keep a bit of humility, because there are no unerring people.