> I would hate to live in a world where you had to have three years of > graduate professional training to write a for-loop for pay, or where > scientists and mathematicians were prohibited from writing code (practicing > software) without a license. Or where someone who just wanted to practice > Python had to first master assembly. > > I would be interested to hear if you know something about medical/legal > exams, quite aside from there use as legal cudgels, that would contribute to > (carefully) improving voluntary computer training and exams.
I think what I'm after is something not so extreme as this. Obviously there are numerous folks out there that don't have a boatload of formal education and are quite competent, while the opposite is also almost certainly true. Maybe I'm just reacting negatively to the constant advertisements I hear on the radio for '6 months to your Microsoft certification' blah blah, and the general trend I see that says you can ignore the need for 'expensive experts' if you just use vendor X's solution. The truth I perceive is that IT is an unusual field where one good employee can accomplish more than any number of mediocre ones ever will. I'm not sure a lot of businesses grasp this, they still think that if there's a problem with getting something done, they just need more people, when in reality they would accomplish more by removing the less competent ones than adding more of any kind. I'm not advocating some kind of licensing for programmers. I just really wish there was some reasonable gauge that could be used to evaluate information professionals. There are many people in the field that are not only incompetent, but they are that way on purpose, and they use the complexity of the field to deceive whoever they can. They may or may not be 'certified' and they may or may not have master's degrees. I see your points. Again, I think mostly this is just my frustration in general. My perception of the world lately is that the stupid and apathetic have really begun to take over. Maybe it was always like that, or maybe I'm wrong. Or... maybe it's just Monday :). -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list