Pretty close to my sentiments regarding the downhill education of the Professional IT people.
I expect that “professional” IT people are professional. I expect that they have a desire to learn, a technical competence to achieve the tasks they set out to do, and a constant need to push the envelope of what’s achievable and always move forwards. I expect everyone to have a goal to leave something in a better/faster/more efficient way then they found it. Yet it seems that the last few years have shown people in IT are by and large the complete and polar opposite.
Taken from OverClockers.com.au via HeyInternet.com via Eugen on Silk.
It’s almost like the real IT education (peering over the shoulders of seniors) has been abandoned in favour of simple For dummies books and Learn *nix in a month type crash-courses.
I’m sure Renny Koshy and Kevin Walsh are two Professional IT people of the kind I will never meet again!
(Now wait and see then both come and bash me in the comments just for naming them here!)
15 Sep 2008 at 12:40 pm
Dear sir,
The problem is not with learn unix in a month. The problem is if you stop learning unix after a month.
Here is an example of what I’ve been doing recently. I’m a Ubuntu n00b but I have to install packges on my jeos install (no gui). I know aptitude is the lamest way of package install followed by apt-get and dpkg being the real deal. As part of the “for dummies” thingie, I started off with aptitude and used nothing else. The job gets done. However, as time passed, I am getting a hang of dpkg. Ultimately, I’ll end up doing things that aptitude can never do.
On an unrelated note, it is is well past high time that you start supporting real tags in your comments section beyond bed and breakfast.
17 Sep 2008 at 3:17 am
Arvind:
About tags … it’s got to do with my nothaving upgraded my WordPress version all these months. Now I can put in a plugin to help with better html tags in comments.
Well, people who go to learn unix in a month type of courses are the usual suspects when it comes to stopping to learn unix after that month is over.
How many real techies do you know who got their tech chops right at an NIIT or Aptech?
Heck, even I left NIIT after a semester (I was in 8th standard, and frankly, running infinite loops around the rest of the class, all in college) and haven’t felt better since!
17 Sep 2008 at 11:59 am
Ok, I got a real hang of DOS with DOS for dummies; I started off with C by reading C for dummies (all hail Dan Gookin). I got my first quality time on windoze doing an evening course on windoze at you know where. I really don’t like people who say they started off leaarning C++ by reading Stroustrup’s book.
Hang on for a blog post by me on the sense of accomplishment…it is due sometime soon