Startup guru Don Dodge has gotten so much coverage since being let go from Microsoft, and subsequently hired by Google, that frankly I've pretty much tuned it all out. That said, his post yesterday on his discovery of Macs is worth a read -- not because of any major new insights into the age-old Mac vs. Windows debate, but because of its implicit message about the technological blinders dutifully donned by many Microsofties.

This sentence, in particular, caught my attention: "After years of defending Microsoft against the Apple fanatics I decided to go to the other side of the road to see for myself," Dodge writes.

Good for him, but the fact that he hadn't seen the other side of the road as a Microsoft employee is a symptom of a larger problem at the Redmond company. Loyalty to and appreciation for your own products is nice, to a point, but after interacting with people at Microsoft for the better part of the past decade, I've never quite understood, logically, why it's taboo for its employees to use competing products.

Of course, the company isn't alone in this cultural tendency, but in my experience, Microsoft is exceptional in its fanaticism. If anyone doubts what I'm saying, flash back to September at Safeco Field for a moment.

Another example came recently on the Daily Show. "I am a very loyal Microsoft user," said Bill Gates when Jon Stewart suggested that his departure from day-to-day life at the company would let him use an iPhone.

"We Bing, and we Bing, Bing, Bing, Bing, at least all the time in my world," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer during his recent Consumer Electronics Show keynote.

Really? That's too bad. Out here in my world, we Google and Yahoo and Bing and use anything else that will help us find what we're looking for. I've been "Binging" more than usual lately, not out of blind loyalty, but because in some situations I prefer the results it delivers, and the experience. But I'm also constantly comparing those results to other search engines, to make sure I'm getting the best information -- in the same way I experience Windows and OS X and Linux and as many other types of technology as I can get my hands on.

Of course, many Microsoft employees do use competing products, as evidenced by the Ballmer iPhone incident at Safeco Field. But as that incident also showed, it tends to be done somewhat illicitly.

Maybe this is expecting too much maturity, but imagine what would happen if the Microsoft culture instead embraced the notion of its employees -- like everyone else in the rest of the world -- using whatever technology they liked best, or was most appropriate for their work.

To be sure, there are natural limits to this when it comes to the back-end server and IT infrastructure used by the company. I'm not suggesting that Microsoft CIO Tony Scott switch everybody over to Lotus Notes.

But in the consumer realm, think what would happen if Microsoft employees experienced and saw around them, every day, a true reflection of the competitive landscape -- including Microsoft products and rival technologies. My hunch is that they'd come away with a better understanding of what motivates specific consumer actions, and how they might be able to get consumers to pick Microsoft products instead.

Really, it doesn't seem so crazy. At least, that's the view from my world.

Update: Thanks to everyone for the healthy debate in the comments. Here's another post that might be of interest: Former Tablet PC guru says Microsoft has sabotaged itself.