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

[Andrew Perrin]

I went out of town and returned to such a flurry!

No, I'm not studying y'all, although if someone wants to suggest a
research question it's not such a bad idea....

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 Fri, 28 Jun 2002, Michael Mueller wrote:

> 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/
> > > --*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--
> > > GPG Fingerprint = A66C 8660 924F 5F8C 71DA  BDD0 CE09 4F8E DE76 39D4
> > > 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)
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > TriLUG mailing list
> > >     http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug
> > > TriLUG Organizational FAQ:
> > >     http://www.trilug.org/~lovelace/faq/TriLUG-faq.html
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > TriLUG mailing list
> >     http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug
> > TriLUG Organizational FAQ:
> >     http://www.trilug.org/~lovelace/faq/TriLUG-faq.html
> 
> -- 
> Mike Mueller
> www.ss7box.com
> _______________________________________________
> TriLUG mailing list
>     http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug
> TriLUG Organizational FAQ:
>     http://www.trilug.org/~lovelace/faq/TriLUG-faq.html
>