Re: Losing my profession?

Subject: Re: Losing my profession?
From: Sandy Harris <sandy -at- storm -dot- ca>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 30 May 2001 23:57:56 -0400

david -dot- locke -at- amd -dot- com wrote:
>
> Tanja Rosteck said:
>
> > Secondly, I strongly disagree with those folks who think just because
> > you graduated with a certain degree (or none at all), that you can't
> > do well in a seemingly unrelated field.

Me too.

> I'll take a guess and suppose that this is pointed at me.

I doubt that.

> Being a geek has nothing to do with the degree a person has. It has
> everything to do with how the person approaches technology. A person is a
> geek long before they get a degree. Geeks, "Technical Enthusiasts," approach
> towards technology differently. They model the application.

So far, I agree entirely.

> These are the people that don't read the manuals.

Or that read them cover-to-cover. To quote the classic "Portrait of J. Random
Hacker":
http://tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/html/Personality-Characteristics.html

| Although high general intelligence is common among hackers, it is not the
| sine qua non one might expect. Another trait is probably even more important:
| the ability to mentally absorb, retain, and reference large amounts of
| `meaningless' detail, trusting to later experience to give it context and
| meaning. A person of merely average analytical intelligence who has this
| trait can become an effective hacker, but a creative genius who lacks it will
| swiftly find himself outdistanced by people who routinely upload the contents
| of thick reference manuals into their brains. [During the production of the
| first book version of this document, for example, I learned most of the
| rather complex typesetting language TeX over about four working days, mainly
| by inhaling Knuth's 477-page manual. My editor's flabbergasted reaction to
| this genuinely surprised me, because years of associating with hackers have
| conditioned me to consider such performances routine and to be expected. --ESR]

> They experiment. They test. They hack.
> They learn. They will pick up a reference manual to find that one thing that
> escapes them.

Or to learn it all, and send the author email if it is incomplete or inaccurate.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems
Available now at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com

Sponsored by Information Mapping, Inc., a professional services firm
specializing in Knowledge Management and e-content solutions. See
http://www.infomap.com or 800-463-6627 for more about our solutions.

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.


References:
RE: Losing my profession?: From: david . locke

Previous by Author: Re: Portable HTML Search Engine
Next by Author: Re: How to keep manufacturing personnel interested?
Previous by Thread: RE: Losing my profession?
Next by Thread: Re: Losing my profession?


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads