On Fri, Jan 13, 2017 at 8:15 AM, Tom Marchant < 0000000a2a8c2020-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu> wrote:
> On Thu, 12 Jan 2017 16:41:58 -0500, Farley, Peter wrote: > > ><rant> My unfortunate experience has been that ordinary users > >are not considered smart enough to see or understand what > >storage admins do. </rant> > > This is one of my pet peeves, so I'll extend your rant a bit. > > Ever since I started in this business, people have warned me that certain > people aren't smart enough to understand, and that giving them too much > information will cause problems. > > As an application programmer, I was told that if I gave operators too much > information,they wouldn't understand and would f*** things up worse than if > I just keep them ignorant. > > As an Amdahl SE, I was told that the hardware guys couldn't handle > software knowledge, and neither could the customer's sysprogs. > > As a system programmer, it was the applications programmers, the system > analysts, auditors, managers and vendors. > > Now as an ISV software developer, it is the customers and the support > people. There is one person at a customer site who I was told is totally > unreasonable, and incapable of learning or following directions. I had > occasion to talk on the phone with this person to help resolve an issue. We > worked together looking at various things until we discovered the cause of > the problem. > > As it happened, a relatively minor mistake had been made. In the process > of working with the him, I learned that everything I had been told about > him was untrue. He was bright, thoughtful, and a damn good sysprog. He knew > better than us how to do things, and had his own procedures that make more > sense than the canned procedures that we provided. > > In over 45 years in this business, everyone I have ever met does a better > job with more information. Even more importantly, when people are treated > with respect and with the assumption that they are competent, they do > better work. > > Sure, sometimes all of us make mistakes, sometimes with catastrophic > results. I remember well the day that I was getting ready to IPL a test > LPAR and reset a production LPAR instead. Was I stoned or stupid? Neither. > > The user-dummy is a myth. > A nice post, with which I am in general agreement. There are, of course, always exceptions. I've known, very few, some who use extra knowledge to subvert the "spirit and intent" (my colonel's expression) of some business rule. Of course, many business rules seem to exist only to hinder the workers. I really dislike it when I'm told to "answer the question as asked with no elaboration". This is one reason why I'm an FSF supporter and a GNU/Linux user. I've been around for a while and still despise OCO. > > -- > Tom Marchant > -- There’s no obfuscated Perl contest because it’s pointless. —Jeff Polk Maranatha! <>< John McKown ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
