� Poor Little Rich Girl | Main | Legacies �
June 09, 2003
Hand Tools
I've been thinking about the way I learned to wire basic electric circuits in light of learning of a colleague's recent headaches on the domestic front. It turns out that his sprinkler system is dysfunctional and not amenable to his tinkering. He's also fairly bad with electrician stuff too. Me, I'm bad at plumbing and aside from fixing the toilet float, I don't even try. The both of us are, of course, computer geniuses.
I find it interesting that we are not having an intellectual block. Neither of us think we're too stupid to do the work. What I think goes without saying is that we are accustomed to a standard we know we cannot accomplish. So we don't attempt to do what we know would be shoddy work.
How I wish this were so in the computer industry.
There is a lot to be said in defense of apprenticeship and I think it's about time somebody started teaching software that way. The more I code, the more I find that structured approaches to thinking about software are necessarily compromises. I am bending towards the German philosophy of design. The acknowledged master leads, the followers follow. In time, you become a master. However, if I were to build a school of programming, I think it would follow the model of the French chefs. You start by washing dishes.
I cannot imagine that a group of programmers who had been together for a decade couldn't master a specialty of computing. But it seems so unlikely to have such a team that I believe nobody considers it. Clear your mind then for a moment and fill it with the idea of a dedication approaching that of Steinway.
My children will be sick of computing and they will reject it probably. I will continue to be fascinated by steel. But some of us ought to live and breathe as programmers working as teams over decades. Great things could happen.
Posted by mbowen at June 9, 2003 10:31 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.visioncircle.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/125
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Hand Tools:
� business mentor from business mentor
jessie connors
real estate coaching
success coaching
[Read More]
Tracked on March 15, 2005 03:11 AM
� robert g. allen from robert g. allen
robert allen
robert g. allen
multiple streams of income
[Read More]
Tracked on March 15, 2005 01:04 PM