I watched, again, the most excellent "Flight of the Phoenix" over the
weekend. (Yes, folks, I do have a life besides IT..) As sometimes happens
after re-visiting a film, I discovered another perspective, maybe even
relevant to IT engineering.
There was a point, in the movie, that the engineer was in complete control.
"Who is in authority, here?" As long as the aircraft was on the ground, in
the design/construction phase, the engineer had complete, ruthless, but
necessary, control.
As soon as the engine started, however, that control shifted over to the
pilot of the aircraft. The control shifted immediately and entirely.
The pilot, you see, had many years of practical experience *flying*
aircraft. The engineer's task was done.
Maybe there is a lesson here. Sure, and engineer can have that coveted CCIE
(or MCSE, or CNE, etc., etc.), but it takes a different kind of person to
get the system "off the ground" and keep it flying.
Best, G.
VP OGC
"When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier."
Kipling, on other wars with different soldiers
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chuck Larrieu [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Friday, January 11, 2002 8:53 PM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: OT: What good is this stuff, anyway? [7:31705]
>
>
> I had the extreme good fortune of sitting in a meeting today with a
> customer. The project has moved out of the sales phase ( a year in the
> making ) and into the project phase. In attendance were the
> customer's top
> IT networking staff and my employer's project team.
>
> This ended up being a four hour meeting, completely dominated
> by Customer IT
> Director and my employer's Mr. CCIE
>
> One of the high points? the customer had sent Mr. CCIE an L3 switch
> configuration the previous day. Mr. CCIE was to offer comment
> on the design.
> Mr. CCIE said "from what I see here, I'll bet you have a
> routing loop. I'll
> bet that if you do a traceroute from that switch to this
> particular network
> it will go nowhere." The customer said "you're on", telnetted into the
> switch, performed the trace, and sure enough, the * * * * * *
> appeared after
> three hops. You shoulda seen this guy's face!
>
> this was but a small part of a fascinating dialogue between
> the customer and
> Mr. CCIE.
>
> Oh, it did not hurt that Mr. CCIE had fifteen years
> technology experience,
> and ten years in networking.
>
> Anyway, back to the books. I'm jazzed about learning the
> dirty little BS
> things again!
>
> Chuck
Message Posted at:
http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=31887&t=31705
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