Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Fri, 21 Jun 2002 00:41:48 -0700
From:      Benjamin Krueger <benjamin@seattleFenix.net>
To:        "Kevin Kinsey, DaleCo, S.P." <kdk@daleco.biz>
Cc:        freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Low impact, high value training?  (wish me luck!!)
Message-ID:  <20020621004148.A8684@rain.macguire.net>
In-Reply-To: <00b901c218e1$6229a5c0$ceec910c@daleco>; from kdk@daleco.biz on Fri, Jun 21, 2002 at 12:06:20AM -0500
References:  <00b901c218e1$6229a5c0$ceec910c@daleco>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
* Kevin Kinsey, DaleCo, S.P. (kdk@daleco.biz) [020620 22:08]:
> I'm interested in some computer training of some
> sort.  I'm trying to just make a bit more $$ than
> I have been in other fields.  However, the last time
> I was in a classroom as a students when the 
> topic was computers was in the 1970s.  (Anyone
> remember Apple's IIe and PRODOS?  I have 
> taught myself enough to run various OSes 
> with some success and am building up a 
> small service/consulting business in this
> backwater part of the world.  For the most part
> my customers are satisfied, and my competitors 
> haven't yet comie to beat me up.  My question is,
> is any training out there worth much, short of
> another degree?  Here's something that worries me:
> 
> I visited a customer this week for several hours.
> She had a M$ system that runs like a<n> (original)
> 1939 Packard on diesel with half the valves stuck...
> you get the idea ... :-)  Obviously she's no good at
> tweaking a system.
> 
> She has a professional photography business, but
> claims to have university/college training in computers,
> including programming in C++.  She said she made
> As & Bs (high marks, for those familiar with other
> terminology...).
> 
> She wants me to build her another system, so I
> quoted several configurations ... As I was fighting
> with her Windoze, she came in, pointed to the
> field on the quote form that said "Processor type
> and speed" and asked, "What is this talking about?"
> 
> If I can learn more in a few years of practical 
> experience and late night www-surfing than she
> can in college courses, what's the point of training?
> I'm not knocking anyone with a CS degree of any
> type (she obviously doesn't have one....) I just
> don't think that attending a course or two here
> in SW Missouri is going to help a lot.  Any
> thoughts?
> 
> TIA, Kevin Kinsey, DaleCo, S.P.    

  I am of the opinion that you get out of education what you put in
to it. Garbage In, Garbage Out. If you want to learn a great deal of
things at university, you will. If you are only attending to run
through the mill and obtain a degree, you're probably wasting
everyone's time. Unfortunately, I think most folks fall into the
latter category.

  So, if you think that you are going to put the effort in to
your coursework, you will likely find that you get a great deal of
benefit from it. Don't think of a university course as something
passive that shapes you. Rather, think of it as a tool that you can
use to shape yourself as much as you're willing.

Regards,

-- 
Benjamin Krueger

"Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about."
- Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)
----------------------------------------------------------------
Send mail w/ subject 'send public key' or query for (0x251A4B18)
Fingerprint = A642 F299 C1C1 C828 F186  A851 CFF0 7711 251A 4B18

To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20020621004148.A8684>