Wow.
I will save this email for future reference. It delivers a solid and comprehensive summary of the HOWTO stuff we all work and play with.
And here I sit, with Reflection running my connections to the VAX and the Tru64 Alpha box from this Windows machine, well, above my right shoulder, a sagging shelf of OpenVMS, Tru64, and local site-specific docs threaten to bury me. Also a can of Air Wick, the Lavender Fields aroma, which was here when I got here; I didn't buy it.
Second day on the gig, tech-savvy boss, and the bullpen here of three network/Windows guys, one telco guy, and one soon-to-leave VMS consultant. Life is good.
Except it ain't Vermont and it ain't the Granite State. And today's steady rain is at least wetting down the remains of three major fires here in the Haht of the Commonwealth.
Thanks much for your thoughts.
Regahds,
Dave
On 5/2/06, Paul Lussier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
"David Hardy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> I've been on the list for a few years now and wouldn't dream of heckling Ben
> or anyone else here; way in awe of you guys.
Awwww, shucks :)
> I've been running Linux since RH 6.1 but what I know can fit on the
> business end of a pencil compared to you all.
Well, not to spill a secret or anything, but everyone else on this
list started at the same point :) There are days when I feel like an
idiot[1] compared to those I work with[2]. Knowledge, like poverty, can
often be a matter of perspective. In otherwords, you can make a
million dollars a year, but if you overspend, you're still broke, and
still feel like you don't make "enough". It's the same with
knowledge. The more you know, the more you realize you have to learn :)
Most of us accumulated our knowledge following a simple 7 step
program (you can try this at home kids:)
1. We read.
2. We read a lot.
3. We read multiple mediums and multiple sources.
4. We attempt to apply what we read to reality.
5. We read some more.
6. We correct for our mistakes
7. Goto 1.
After several iterations of that, we usually break down and ask
someone for help, whether it's on this list or another.
Note that we do in fact ask for help, but that it's usually the *last*
thing we do[3]. If you've been on this list or any technical mailing
list for a while, you'll notice a pattern among the posters there.
- The more experienced posters (Group A)
- pose questions about rather arcane or complex issues; things
the average list member might not have any knowledge of, any
need to know, or something just so far past the realm of what
the "average" would think of, they'd never consider asking a
question like that.
- usually get a few responses of the form "have you tried this?",
or "What if you went about it a slightly different way." With
the occasional "Wow, that's a tough one? Why do you need
that?!"
- The younger/lesser experienced folks (Group B)
- ask FAQs or rather simple questions.
- get multitudes of answers, many duplicates or variations of the
same theme.
- are usually answered by the group above
From this pattern, we can deduce several things:
- The more experienced posters
- know the simple stuff, therefore don't have to ask
- know where/how to get the answers to most questions quickly
without having to ask
- probably read/experiment a lot
- know how to use google effectively
- The younger/lesser experienced folks
- don't know the simple stuff yet
- don't know where/how to get the answers quickly
- haven't read (enough)
- probably haven't experimented much
- probably haven't googled
Also note:
- Everyone has been a member of Group A at sometime or other
- Everyone *will* be a member of Group A for some amount of time for
every new community they join
- Upward mobility is not only possible, but encouraged!
- The time it takes to move from Group B into Group A is largely
dependant on:
- How closely other already attained knowledge pertains to this
new group.
(i.e. lots of experience with general UNIX sysadmin lends
greatly to the knowledge required to understanding Apache and
Samba. Knoweldge of Windows, greatly aids configuring Samba
even more.)
- How quickly/often one reads/learns/experiments
- How motivated the individual is in moving to Group A
Footnotes:
----------
[1] Like the time I couldn't figure out why I had a routing problem,
only to have pointed out by Ben that a) I configured a default
route, and b) I didn't have anything at that address :)
[2] I work with a bunch of MIT alumni. One of them is a
"mathematician" because the EE/CS curriculum at MIT was "so easy
it was boring".
[3] Of course, everyone is guilty of asking the occasional stupid
question first without following the 7 steps above, regardless of
whether it's due to a brain-fart, impatience, or whatever :)
--
Seeya,
Paul
