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Re: Remember secretaries? (was RE: Proof that content is more important than style)
Subject:Re: Remember secretaries? (was RE: Proof that content is more important than style) From:cpwinter -at- rahul -dot- net To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Sun, 1 Dec 2002 10:01:37 -0800
On 1 Dec 2002, at 18:07, Michael West wrote:
>
> >
> > I would expect most good programmers to also be good at writing. The
> > cognitive skills are similar. Whether they choose to write text (as
> > opposed to writing programs) is another question. It's understandable that
> > they might prefer not to exercise the same set of "muscles" on two
> > different tasks.
>
>
> That is an interesting speculation. I'm not really sure at all
> whether it holds true across the general population.
Notice that I said "_good_ programmers". This adjective was added as
an afterthought.
>
> I have found that programmers and engineers are all over
> the map in terms of their ability to express themselves clearly
> in written English.
Yah, so have I. In fact, I'd guess that "techy types" _as a group_ fall
below the average in that particular ability.
>
> On the basis of my experience (no experimental evidence
> offered -- just casual observation) I'd wager that verbal
> skills and the symbolic language skills are not closely
> corellated, statistically. When they ARE highly developed
> in the same individual, then you have a "born" teacher
> or "explainer" -- in its most exalted form, someone like
> Sagan or Feynmann.
>
> The rest of the time, you have the familiar scenario
> of a technical expert who can make himself understood
> by other technical experts, but not by anyone else.
> Without them, we wouldn't be here.
>
Language is language. Spanish or SNOBOL, French or FORTRAN --
they all call for mastery of a certain vocabulary and a set of rules of
syntax. The only inherent reason for different abilities I can see is that
programming languages are consistent, while natural languages are not.
Thus, certain individuals may handle the programming languages well but
be "thrown" (for want of a better word) by the contradictory rules of
natural languages.
Chris
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