Re: Teaching Soft Skills (Was: System Administration

[Joseph S D Yao <jsdy@gwyn.tux.org>]

> 0.01 Fact - (due to inflation)
> 
> "It is easier to teach a liberal studies major how to program ...
> than it is to teach a computer science major how to communicate "
> 
> I think one could safely replace "how to be a SA" 
> for "how to program" 

This is trivially true.  When I was first learning programming [how many
decades ago?], Professor Bossert was amused that his 6-year-old daughter
[who will be profoundly embarrassed if you bring this to her attention]
was programming.

Anyone can program.

The trick to doing it RIGHT is software engineering.  To paraphrase Shaw
on Christianity - it's not that it has been tried and found wanting; it
has been found difficult, and not tried at all.  Both of which are
exaggerations only in their absoluteness.  Software engineering IS more
difficult than just having fun programming.  And it's done much more
rarely than it should be [i.e., always].

Similarly, yes, anyone can administer a system, and maybe even do a
passably fair job at it.  But some just repeat the tricks they were
taught when they were new at it, and believe they know what they're
doing; while others try to understand what they're doing; and can
usually figure out what's going wrong if there's a problem that goes
outside their previous experience.

Managers seem to feel that there's room for both types.  To be fair,
there probably is.  But IMNSHO, there should be some of the latter
available at all sites, in case there is a severe problem.  That is, if
they want their systems to stay running.  I suppose there may still be
sites where they don't panic when (*gasp*) The System Is Down.

;-)

Joe Yao				jsdy@tux.org - Joseph S. D. Yao