[spam score 2/10 -pobox] [TriLUG] Linux Support Position (OT)

[Mike Mueller]

Hmmm.  I wonder if we're being studied? :-)

On Friday 28 June 2002 14:41, Andrew Perrin reputedly wrote:
> I'd have to agree with this general point. Although the correspondence
> between logical thought and a college education is far from perfect, it's
> also far from random - that is, one predicts the other with greater
> efficiency than chance would predict.
>
> Whether "switching tapes in the DLT drive" requires logical thought is a
> different matter, of course.
>
> Still smarting from Tanner's previous message, I will relate my own
> history. Through college and grad school (and the years in between) I made
> my living (and a better one than your average student) doing a variety of
> computer work, everywhere from hardware repair to unix/nt/postgres system
> administration to perl and (dare I say it) MS Access development.  The
> reaction I typically get is either:
> 	1.) Why'd you go into social science when you could make so
> 	    much more money in computing; and
> 	2.) How in the world do these two skill sets fit together?
>
> The answer to 1.) probably contains roughly equal parts personal
> satisfaction and inability to comprehend the value of money.
>
> The answer to 2.), I think, is much more interesting. Sociology, when done
> well, involves considering human behavior *systematically* - that is,
> working with data to try to discover systematic patterns that predict when
> people (or groups of them) do things (or groups of them).  Good sociology,
> IMNSHO, is therefore quite schematic, and whether qualitative or
> quantitative in nature, uses data to build and illustrate systematic
> theories. Good programming does.... exactly the same thing.  If I were
> back working in IT (which I hope not to be, but that's dependent on the
> tenure committee :)), I would certainly hire a sociology grad, from a good
> department, because of this synergy.
>
> Just my 2c; back to work now!
>
> ap
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Andrew J Perrin - http://www.unc.edu/~aperrin
> Assistant Professor of Sociology, U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
> clists at perrin.socsci.unc.edu * andrew_perrin (at) unc.edu
>
> On 28 Jun 2002, Tanner Lovelace wrote:
> > On Fri, 2002-06-28 at 14:09, Andrew C. Oliver wrote:
> > > Every society has its caste system.  This is ours.
> >
> > I disagree.  While for some positions a college degree may not
> > make that much of a difference for some it does, quite a bit.
> > For developers, I believe it makes an enormous difference.
> > Developing software takes extremely logical, ordered and creative
> > thinking.  While some exceptional people can do this without
> > benefit of a college degree, the vast majority simply cannot
> > (witness the vast amount of software on Source Forge that is
> > simply crap).  To say otherwise shows a lack of understanding
> > of the discipline of programming.
> >
> > System administration, on the other hand, can easily be learned
> > in apprenticeship fashion.  While I believe a good system administrator
> > will benefit from a college degree, I believe they will benefit
> > more from experience (even experience administering a linux
> > box at home).  Note that this does not mean I believe Sys
> > Admins are any less competent than programmers, just that
> > they are in different fields.
> >
> > Tanner
> > --
> > Tanner Lovelace | lovelace at wayfarer.org | http://wtl.wayfarer.org/
> > --*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--
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> > GPG Key can be found at http://wtl.wayfarer.org/lovelace.gpg.asc
> > --*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--
> > Don't move! Or I'll fill ya full of... little yellow bolts of light!
> >                                 Commander John Crichton (Farscape)
> >
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