Re: Teaching Soft Skills (Was: System Administration)

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

> Having a CS degree is certainly not going to automatically make you a
> better sysadmin.  In fact, it may hurt it.  One's ability to produce
> proofs regarding computational theory is nearly totally irrelevant to
> the sysadmin professional.

Ah, a  r e a l  CS degree, as opposed to a "programming" degree.  ;-)

> The most important skill is, in fact, one's ability to solve problems.
> That means playing around on your own, fiddling until things work.
> It means digging around and debugging and benchmarking and profiling
> and doing high-level analysis.

...

> #BEGIN SOFTWARE DEVOLUTION RANT

...

Say it, Brother Tom!  ;-)  Absolutely right.  Programmers are good folk,
and computer scientists are vital for advancing the level of knowledge
in the world; but we need more software engineers on the job!  Been
saying it for decades.

And in the S.A. world, we need people who have  t h o s e  skills - the
ones you list above - as well as knowledge of the systems.  Or even more
importantly than knowledge of the systems.  And how do you teach
creative problem solving?  And how do you test and certify it?  [I
really would like to know - I have a few people who could use it.]

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