Well put. At 05:38 PM 3/17/2006, you wrote: >Slightly OT... > >This talk about degree-holders and non-degree holders makes me think >of a person I worked with at a university resently. > >I was in a small, tight group in the administrative arm of the >university system. We were responsible for any system-wide sites and >for any campus-based sites that couldn't be hosted by the individual >campus (or didn't want to). > >We had just made the decision to go to CF from Perl (back in 2001) >and after a very brief training started coding new pages at a furious pace. > >One of the trainees had dropped out of the training because she >couldn't keep up. It turns out that she had several degrees in >programming theory and other mathematical and theoretical studies. >Had even written a book. Very impressive on paper, but she couldn't >program her way out of a paper bag. > >A few days after we had finished the core of our first CF site she >stepped into the fracas and suggested that we should be learning java instead. > >I stopped and looked at her and came very close to asking her if >she'd fair any better at learing that language. I mean, if she >couldn't hack CF... Java?!? I passed on the barb, and we continued >working with CF. > > >Advance the film a couple of years and now we've advanced beyond the >basics and are now building a single, server-based, >multi-site-hosting CMS to end all CMSes. But one day we're stuck on a >particular problem. We three programmers are sitting around in our >swivel chairs tossing paper balls at each other trying to figure it out. > >In walks the PhD non-programmer and makes a suggestion. We all put >our hands up and skoff. She walks up to the wipe board and explains >the situation and we argue for 20 minutes. When it's all over the >three of us are staring at each other at how well the suggestion will >solve the problem, and probably a few others as well. > >She wipes her hands and walks out of the room, smiling. > >I have to say, up until that point I was wondering (a) how she had >ever gotten any degrees and (b) what the hell she was doing in our >group. She couldn't program her way out of a paper bag, but she did >that theoretical trick on us two more times before I left the university. > >Experience is everything, but it gets stale without an occasional theory. > > >Funny thing, too. She was the "Accessability Specialist" in our >group. A real stickler for fine detail. > >Mik > > > > >-------- >Michael Muller >Admin, MontagueMA.net Website >Montague, MA 01351 >work (413) 863-0030 >cell (413) 320-5336 >fax (518) 713-1569 >skype: michaelBmuller >email [EMAIL PROTECTED] >http://www.MontagueMA.net > >Eschew Obfuscation > > > >
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