Comments on: UPDATE III: Experience Revered (Scientific Second Coming)

By: Contemplationist

Contemplationist — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:20:33 +0000

I’ll concede that the hardware space may be as you describe. Software, however, is a far cry from your description.

Regarding Junto, few weeks back, the great Robert Higgs showed up to talk about his new book and did not speak a word till around 8:45PM (the event starts at 730) and i counted at least 10 monologues disrupting his talk.
Just be aware that it’s not a traditional speaker-and-q-and-a event.

By: My RON-PAUL i

My RON-PAUL i — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 03:31:17 +0000

I have spent some of my career fighting “high tech”. In the 1990’s, there were several detailed humongous sets of complex “physics based” computer programs to calculate several different phenomena (missile combustion, infrared emissions, atmospheric absorption & scattering, missile trajectories, sensor models …. ) all requiring lots of expertise to run the models (which agree with experimental data to about a factor of two). I came up with some hand calculator formulas and a few lookup tables to do a week of computer stuff in around 10 minutes – nice, low-tech, easier to understand, and agreed with real data to about the same accuracy. Probably got a lot of “high tech” specialists upset.

Today I listened to a description of someone with a 9300 pound “sensor pallet” to do some military detection. I then gave my talk in the afternoon that the challenge was not “how to come up with a $10 million 9300 pound solution no one can afford but how to do the job for under $ 100,000” – especially since the simpler stuff weighed 30 pounds. Sadly, we have a bunch of “high tech” people who think that “brute force” of technology is a substitute for cleverness.

By: Contemplationist

Contemplationist — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 02:22:04 +0000

Yeah its falsifiable, but it’s probably not going to be refuted. I welcome you to visit these kids in New York or San Francisco. There is a culture of hard work, of not tolerating incompetence, of hiring only the best, of being focused on the end goal. Its a whole culture not a few cherry-picked examples. Really!

By the way, I’ll be at your Junto talk in NYC. Be forewarned! It’s not a traditional meeting with a speaker. It’s raucous and disruptive, full of annoying monologues by self-important ideologues, but all in good fun.

[Sounds a nightmare. On the bright side: if every one speaks a lot, I won’t have to.]

By: Jack

Jack — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 21:32:08 +0000

I have not yet seen the age factory come into play in my field of software engineering, and I’m 63 next month. My current project team members are both early 50’s. We did go through a period in which management entertained the fantasy of replacing us with $15/hour Indian programmers but I have not yet seen the age issue come into play.

By: Contemplationist

Contemplationist — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 20:17:40 +0000

James

You are right about MBAs. However in computer tech, young males 18-29 are the leading builders and innovators. Anyone who thinks these Gen-Y males are whiny or lazy or entitled needs to visit Palo Alto or Flatiron District in New York and see them go about their work. Let’s not confuse the Meghan McCains of America with the Mark Zuckerbergs.

[SEE POST UPDATE.]

By: Contemplationist

Contemplationist — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:55:40 +0000

This is completely ridiculous. Have you ever been at a start-up meeting? A workshop? A hackathon? There are 19-21 year olds doing amazing things in technology and design out there. I suggest you venture forth from your cloistered world and go to some of these events for observation. You will be amazed at the level of dedication to finishing and doing hard work.

By: james huggins

james huggins — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 07:46:48 +0000

Myron, you are partially correct but Ilana’s assertion that Americans are over impressed with youth and useless credentials is only too accurate. I can remember being on the job market and enduring interviews with handsome youths, half my age with the correct ties and the correct hair cuts and the correct MBAs from the correct schools and they couldn’t pour piss out of a boot. My dad used to lament that he would trade two MBAs for a good used car salesman any day. I concur.

By: My RON-PAUL i

My RON-PAUL i — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 04:03:08 +0000

I find somewhat in between. Older farts like me have experience and perspective that the younger guys lack – but the younger guys are often more up on later technology.

However, some of the older guys can’t see that things have changed over the span of years and never adjust their thinking. One needs to strike the right balance to avoid inflexibility or faddishness (where everyone follows some latest fad which, contrary to the opinion du jour, does NOT solve everything!).

Well, yesterday, a group with 3 different laboratory divisions and two independent private companies collaborated to assemble a research proposal – so wish me luck!

[Good luck, Myron. But I actually don’t believe you. With your IQ, it’s only liberalism that makes you accept that you are inadequate b/c of age. Some obeisance to the party-line.]